


Later.

by CescaLR



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, F/M, Gen, Headcanon, I tried to keep it as canon compliant as is possible, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Not Epilogue Compliant, Panic Attacks, SO, Swearing, because we're never told, but probably, hope you enjoy??, i think, it tries tho, it's an imagining of what happened between those events., lots and lots of talking, mostly - Freeform, obviously it's not how it actually turned out, obviously some stuff happens that isn't so, of what happened to Wendy's mum basically, so that's it!, sorry - Freeform, this was written before the airing of the last episode to tie myself over until the finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2018-12-26 03:40:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12050535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CescaLR/pseuds/CescaLR
Summary: They have a lot to think about, but now's not the time.They will deal with it. Just... not now.Later.





	1. Later (Pacifica POV)

**Author's Note:**

> Imported from fanfiction.net, by hand because apparently you can't just import it because Fanfiction don't allow that for some reason.
> 
> Agh. Behold, an old fic of mine. This reached over three-thousand views as of publishing this (over on fanficton) jesus christ, wow, never expected that. 
> 
> Checked it over and fixed a few bits (literally just the first paragraph and a bit beyond /I'm so lazy/) but it's still shit as I've improved over the last year (I hope, lol whoops)
> 
> Also in first person for the most part which... why.... but that's fine. The A/N's from fanfiction are sprinkled throughout SORRY and it's all in one chapter because... effort. Whoops.
> 
> Hope you enjoy???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tbh it's just better to read this over on fanfiction I think I accidentally lost five thousand of the words and I can't be bothered to go find them so -_- oh well.

 

 

Title:  **Later**  
Category: Cartoons » Gravity Falls  
Author: CescaLR  
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T  
Genre: Angst/Friendship  
Published: 01-21-16, Updated: 12-18-16  
Chapters: 11, Words: 36,697

* * *

**Chapter 1: Chapter 1 - Later (Pacifica POV)**

* * *

**A/N;**

**Disclaimer on profile.**

**umm... hey. this is definitely AU now. Also, i haven't watched the last ep of gravity falls yet,**  {It wasn't out when you made this?? Old me is weird. Or, well, younger me.} **so none of the stuff that happened there. this is sort of my idea of what could have happened in the interlude between dipper and the rest getting to the shack, and whatever happens next in the plot. when i finish this, i will be watching the last episode, and if this gets relatively good feedback/i just feel like it/someone votes on my poll,**  {as if} **i may possibly make a sequel using info from that episode and such. with twists because i like to warp cannon to its limits or blatantly ignore it when it comes to me writing fanfiction.**

**You have been warned - There is also very mild dipfica hinted at in here. just as a warning, in case that shit disgusts you.**

**For some reason.**

* * *

It had – seemingly, there was no way to tell the time during weirdmageddon, but the innate feeling of time passing still happened – been at least a few hours since Dipper, Mabel, that lumberjack girl and the handyman (I should probably learn their names. What was her name again? Gwen? No, umm... Wendy! Yes, Wendy. No clue what the man's name is though. Not like I'd ask.) showed up at the shack, and I can  _still_  hear the voices of the others down below, probably in the living room, or the kitchen – It's hard to tell from here – conversing, arguing about a plan of action.

Since Dipper, and... uh...  _Wendy_  that's it – and the Handyman had been 'living' out in the Weird Zone – the handyman had somehow survived the Weirdlands; barren wastelands that seem to never end when in them in certain places, places that look like cartoons, and places that no-one ever comes back from - since the start – and apparently Dipper had actually  _survived, completely unscathed -_  save for a few cuts and bruises but nothing major - a meeting with Bill Cipher, and she'd never admit how impressed she was at that, but someone else didn't? Or something, Dipper said he was alive, at least there was that. Mr. Pines seemed relieved when he told him that. I think that was his emotion, it's kind of hard to tell with him – and so they'd told them of other safe places, and the fact that that Gideon kid had switched to their side so they could save Mabel, and they have  _no_  idea if he survived his front-on attack of The Pyramid Palace; Mabel feared the worst, for some reason – hadn't that kid tried to kill her or Dipper? Or something, Dipper didn't seem too worried; there were worse people to lose to the Weirdness, Mabel being one of them. (though I did pay attention to them throughout the story and,  _ouch,_  she replaced Dipper, yikes. Not cool, Mabel. Not cool. Wendy got round to telling her off about that, and no-one else looked impressed, but Dipper insisted she was a good sister – and, boy did she look guilty when he said that, I wonder why. (sarcasm, obviously.)) And -

Well, so much has happened in such a short amount of time I needed a break. To, you know...

Think.

About...

Things.

Like...

Ugh. Right. Just go out and say it, Pacifica.

Dad. And Mom.

_Oh god dad and mom dad and mom dadandmomdadmomdadadadadadadad -_

_His face._

Dear lord his  _face._

Right. Breathe, in, out, in, out, in out in out  _in out in out inoutinoutinoutwhyamInotbreathingwhyohgodtheorificesinhisfacewhydidhedothatitwasevilhetriedtojoinhimevilbutdadbutbellbutfaceno-onedeservesthat-buthedid-buthedidn't-ohgodIcan'tbreathe -_

_"Pacifica!"_

_Avoice. I recognise that voice._

"Pacifica! Hey – oh god she's not breathing – um stories! Right soothing okay, okay, right – um – oh god – um -"

_I know **knewrecognise** that voice._

_Dipper._

_"-_ so I decided that I didn't want my sister to be all depressed, and um, used the time-travel device to, uh, go back to the original time line – hey, actually, now I think about it, how did she remember anything about time travel; was it because I expected her to? Huh, anyway – um, next story -"

 **_Dipper. Mansionghostsavedmesavedushatesme_ ** _doesn'thateme **knowsme** thinksheknowsme **helpedmewhenIneededit** sabotagedmylife **showedmethetruth**  -_

_friend **foe** friend **friend**_

Friend.

"- and that was one heck of a day, I'm telling you -"

Aww. That was kinda nice of him. Helping me. I guess.

Wait, was I having a panic attack?

Well. That - I'm lucky he found me then.

"Hey - You can stop now. But - ah -  _thanks_. I guess. Uh - how's everything going - you know, with the plan."

Ugh, I hate it when I'm caught off guard.  _And it just had to be the same person. Twice, now._  Ugh.

Dipper blinked, then smiled for a second, before registering my question and becoming serious.

"Okay, so, so far we've just been gathering all the intel we have and separating out jobs between us all. Putting people into groups they can work with, and all that. We've got scavengers, defenders and scouts set up, but I had to mediate far too many arguments between species for us to get much further - I had to set the Manotaurs up as the guards to stop them punching holes in the walls; they destroy stuff when they feel... well, any emotion, really. So, to be honest, not much, tensions are far too high to get any real planning or work done. So yeah, so far? It's not looking so good... but we'll see. Right now, I'm more worried about the person I found not breathing on the floor in our room, rocking back and forth. Are you alright, Pacifica?"

He genuinely  _seems_  worried...

Alright then.

"So, you know when weirdmageddon started, and Cipher demonstrated his power to the masses? Well... my family, we were in town when that happened - front row seats."

Dipper winced. Looks like he knows what I'm getting at here.

"So that was something. Well, Dad decided... he decided it would be a great idea to join bill  _andinreturngotalltheorficesinhisfaceswitchedround_. So yeah. Mom disappeared... I don't know what happened to her. I don't really think it'd help to know, to be honest. Then I came across Mr. Pines, Grenda and Old Man McGucket, and... well. Here we are now."

Dipper's eyes had widened at the reveal of what happened to Dad; seems he managed to catch that.

"Woah, Pacifica - I - I'm sorry you had to see that."

No,  _I'm sorry that happened to your dad,_ no,  _Have you seen him? is he alive still?_ No stupid questions or false condolences - he  _knows_  how terrible a person dad  _is **was** is_ and cares more about me than him. Obviously. So that's what he's sorry about. That  _I_  suffered.

Maybe it's messed up. Maybe it's wrong.

But give us a break, the world ended. We can act like we don't care  _andaren'ttraumatised_  until it's no longer over.

I prefer what he said and what he means by it anyway.

I'm pretty sure we're all messed up people right now.

"Y-yeah. That - it. It happened. And, and it's over, now. Mostly. So yeah, I had a breakdown, it won't happen again. It  _can't_. You know that. It - mostly, its over. And now it's your turn. Tell me the stuff you censored out of your story - since I told you mine."

_and told you a bit more than the others got. Before I ran off again._

Dipper took a breath.

"Yeah. Okay. Um, I guess I should start at the beginning, Right?"

"That would make sense. Or, you know, start at the end. Whatever works." I said, hoping it came out as dry sarcasm. Too much emotional... stuff, happened. I need to get in control again. He cracked a small smile - not much of one, nobody thought now was a time for laughter. But hey, I still got a smile, so score for me, right?

"Okay. So, this morning, Mabel and I were exited - her more than me - about our birthday, coming up in a weeks time. We'll be thirteen, just so you know."

"Happy Birthday. Get on with it."

What? Mine was short and concise, it would take at least twenty-ish minutes at this speed.

"Okay, okay. Umm, fast forward, and Mabel has gone out - we both have walkie-talkies so we can communicate - she's gone out to invite people to the party and find a place to host it. And, um, me and Ford, my other Great Uncle, we went to go to this alien space ship -"

I gave him a disbelieving look.

"-Hey, don't look at me like that; the world has literally ended and you question aliens? Anyway, we were going to find this adhesive, to glue the container for the rift that is now up in the sky - see that cross, up there? yeah, that, where all the demons came from -"

I nodded, impatient.

" - Right. so, um... complications happened, the alien security was activated, Ford was taken by this alien pod thing, and I...  _kindofusedanincrediblypowerfulmagnettoattachmyselftothepodthingandbringitdownwhilstinmidairandthenfoughtitonthegroundandwowsayingthisoutloudmakesitsoundcoolerthanitwas_ and Ford offered me to be his apprentice - discovering the secrets of gravity falls and the supernatural, and working for... well, basically my idol, and... well, I said yes."

I nodded. Makes sense, of course he would take it. Dipper's good enough to get in the news and for my family to even consider going to him for help with that ghost problem. I don't see why he shouldn't have taken it.

"So, well... it turns out that my walkie-talkie was on for the whole conversation. Mabel... heard everything. I don't really know what happened on her side of things, but it was enough for her to be... to be even more upset than she normally would have been, and the way she heard about it was... not ideal, and everything went wrong from there. Next thing I know, she's running off into the woods, taking  _a_ backpack with her, and I'm having a conversation with Great Uncle Ford, and then we realise she took my bag, with the rift inside -"

Oh no. She could easily see where this was going. The fear/horror whatever emotion she was feeling was surely painted across her face right now.

Dipper grimaced.

"Yeah, it's as bad of a mess-up as it sounds. So Mabel ran off into the forest, and next thing I see is Bill Cipher  _corporeal, in our reality_ , floating up to the sky and fully opening the rift, letting thousands of horrors into our world and my sister is nowhere to be seen, and Ford is already planning how to get rid of Bill, and we go off to the clock tower and he shoots this one-time-use bill defeating gun - I know that it's annoying that its one shot only, truly - but  _misses_ , freaking misses, and there's a temporary hole in Bill's top hat, and Ford's tossing me his journals and I'm hiding and ford's being turned into a freaking  _gold statue and I can't bring myself to tell anyone this -"_

He's ranting now, probably momentarily forgotten I'm here. I'll let him, people say this sort of thing is cathartic.

"and then I'm standing in front of Bill, and there is  _nothing I can do_ , and I think, 'you know what?  _fuck it._ ' and I punch him in the eye."

I blink.  _What._

"Well that was a stupid, desperate move. I'll give you that not many'd have the guts to do it though."

Maybe that was too harsh? was that too harsh - it probably was -

"Sorry. That was harsh. You tried, and this guy is an immortal, all powerful demon - and, ugh, don't tell anyone, but -"

I exhale harshly.  _Why is this so hard?_

" _Ugh,_  I'm impressed, okay?! You - you stood up to  _that-_ I could  _never do that,_ I can  _hardly_ stand up _to my parents_ and a _stupid... **bell**  of all things_. You're far braver than I gave -  _than anyone_  gives you credit for. Don't ask me to say that all again, it was difficult enough the first time - how do you people make it look so easy to do that? Ugh don't answer just... just continue, we can talk after if you want. Just..."

Ugh. I feel emotionally drained.

"Just continue."

Wearily, I rub my hand down my face. Dipper just nods, once, warily flicking his eyes in my direction, and continues.

"Well, obviously that backfired, luckily not as much as I expected, as I am standing here now, talking about the event - so I got repelled backwards. Skipping a little of me running away from two of his 'gang' members, and trying to find anyone whilst talking into my walkie-talkie - as if that'd help  _anything_  - and to after I found Wendy."

Yes! I was right about her name. Great.

"So, Wendy gets my spirits up with a pep talk and the last box of food she had and some Pitt cola, and we made a plan to get to Mabel's bubble - her own little prison away from the terrors of the apocalypse. Soon, we find ourselves captured by Gideon and his Warriors, but, after a chase, I convinced him to give us the key to the bubble, and - now with Soos-"

Oh! So that's his name. Ah.

" - all three of us enter the bubble while Gideon and his fellow prison escapees front-on attack the Pyramid, and well... the next part is... something."

I snorted. What else would we expect? This is  _Mabel_ , a prison wouldn't hold her, it'd have to be something...

Creative.

Hmm...

"So basically, Bill had her trapped inside the perfect, Mabel World - where summer  _never ends_. And it's heavily inspired by the 80's. And 90's. It knew what you wanted - whatever you wanted, before you even knew you wanted it; and that should have been a clue that Mabel wasn't in complete control, she only thought she was - oh, right, yeah, everyone there treated her as if she were the ruler. and just, like, lots of her was the jury, and all her creations were there, and all her crushes as if they returned her feelings - The perfect Mabel world, right down to... to a  _better_  me. Which, by the way - not a better me, not at all, I  _hated_ that guy - was called..." he exhaled forcefully "... right. It was called "Dippy Fresh". Just...  _why?_ " And he honestly looks so confused right now. I laughed a little. "It's Mabel, Dipper. There is no rhyme or reason to her imagination, nor the things she does. Which can be great - or terrible, judging by the great big hole in the sky. And the fact that she replaced you. Ehrm, sorry." He  _is_ her brother, after all. And maybe that was a bit too blunt - It's not like I've had anyone to help me learn how to be nice, it's only been a few days and I hadn't even seen the Pines family or friends 'till today. Sorta. Maybe yesterday? Hard to tell. He half winced, half smiled. "Yeah, everyone's pretty disappointed with Mabel for that. And, yeah, I see why, but haven't any of them wanted to replace family members with better versions of them when they're angry at them? I just - I guess why I'm not refuting it completely is because... because  _I don't know what I'd do in her place._  What  _my_ bubble would be like. I just don't know and - yeah. That's why I don't. Refute it, I mean." Hmm. he seemed almost...  _scared_ , of not knowing what his bubble would be like. I don't think he wants me to know that though, so I'll let it slide for now. But yeah, I can see where he's coming from. Not that I have any siblings of my own, but wanting to change a family member? I can get behind that. "Yeah, okay. I get it." He glanced at me, and with a thoughtful tone and expression said "You would, wouldn't you? Anyway-" oh, good he's going back to the factual retelling of events of not long ago. Why did I think it like that - whatever . I'll just pay attention "-So she tried to make an argument to stay, and I showed her why leaving, and fighting for our world would be way better than hiding in a fake one." damn, missed a bit. Oh well, doesn't seem too important. "And we awkwardly hugged as siblings do, the world fell apart into nightmares around us as we rode to the outside walls of the bubble on waddles, the giant version, and Mabel stood on the back of his head holding a giant needle, and popped the bubble. We made our way back here, and you were present for the rest. So yeah, that's my apocalypse story." Wow. That was intense in a completely different way to mine. Way more dangerous for him than my story was for me. "Well done on not dying, dork." Because. Just because.  _Because after hearing that I am actually surprised he's here and I'm covering that up._  Damn. Can't hide in my own head. Forgot that. He blinked. "Thanks, I think." He looked concerned again. Curses, I thought he'd have forgotten about that by now. No such luck. "You know it's not stupid to be afraid of that bell, right? When it rang, it never meant anything good - and, you seem to forget that this is a tried and tested method, an inhumane method, of controlling a dog. It has been used on people in the past, and, just like you, even though they were afraid they stood up to the owner of the bell, eventually, and hey - the definition of courage is being able to do something, even in the face of fear. Like when you saved everyone when you stood up to your dad and the bell to free your family from the curse, and, more importantly, free the people who were turned to wood. Thanks for that, by the way." and there it was - a brief, genuine smile, however small, flashed in her direction. Her cheeks grew warm. (Great. She was  _blushing._ There was certainly no reason for that. Nope.) "Uh - yeah. Thanks. And - you too? In return - oh whatever. Just - it was something I did, because - because it was  _right to,_ do so. I guess." Wow. Pacifica, today is not your day to be making eloquent speeches, is it? Dipper's gaze turned soft, and he placed a hand on my shoulder like he did that day in the mansion, when I'd had a... small, minor, little teeny-tiny breakdown.  _Why is it **always**  him? _I have no clue. He removed his hand and smiled softly at me  _(which was kindamaybe a bit cute, but now was **so**  not the time)_. I have the urge to hug him again. But like, not pay him to forget/pretend it never happened, this time.

There must be something in the air.

Aw, hell to it. The world has ended; a hug is probably like, good for you or something. Not like I'd know, is it?

So I hugged him.

_arepeoplesupposedtofreezewhenyouhugthemhedidbackatthemansionandhedidnowamidoingthiswrongamisqueezingtootightaremyarmsintherightplace-_

he put his arms around me, awkwardly.

 _Oh._ Okay. That -

That's nice.

Right.

I should let go now.

(Exhales softly)

Maybe just a  _little_  longer...

So they sat there, just hugging slightly, listening to the sounds of the end of the world, the people in the house, and just sitting. Hugging. Thinking.

And yeah, maybe their eyes are damp.

But they'll ignore that when they stop.

later.

_Later._

A/N:

So, hey guys, hope you liked that. um, this was just me realising i should probably spell check and just check in general a story made at one in the morning. Duh.

Thanks for the favs! :)

you'll maybe get a new chapter to this, possibly in Dipper's pov, but eh. Exams are coming/already here and i'm pretty busy, so just, like, cross your fingers or something.

you're all great.

thanks.


	2. Chapter 2: Chapter 2 - Later (Dipper POV)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper really needed to revise how to help people having panic attacks.
> 
> The world's ended. It's going to be needed again, sooner or later.
> 
> He'd've never pegged Pacifica as the first to break though. Not by a long shot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FFN A/N;  Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that this chap had a few mistakes that I fixed but nothing too major, and I rephrased some stuff but whatever. Beware the f-bombs within if that sorta shit offends you or sumptn'.
> 
> AO3:  
> I was really, really bad at quality control at first, I guess, because wow were there a lot of issues with just this one chapter. Yikes.

 

* * *

We were so busy when we got back to the shack – after almost attacking each other, but the world has ended, easy thing to happen – That I almost didn't notice someone sneaking off during the planning stage. Unfortunately, I couldn't stop her – I was in the middle of trying to calm a Manotaur down, with our last beef jerky (Manly Dan was rather upset to part with it – Wendy convinced him to, though, and they went in another room to talk. About… Well. Three young(ish) redheaded boys are missing from the family reunion. You get what that means.) and I sent him and a few others outside to do guard duty – he looked fairly pleased about getting 'a man's job' and  _oh lord_  did a lot of people want to punch him.

Which left me to mediate. Again.

_Godiwhishfordwashere_   _ **stopnousewishfulthinking –**_

_Don't think about that. You're holding everything together man. You can break down later._

_Later._

So yeah. So much mediating went on, let me not bore both of us to sleep about that, shall I?

It's probably not a good sign when the mediator wants to either punch and/or grab  _and relentlessly shake the people involved because **Jesus Christ**  we're in the middle of the end of the world this is no time for petty fighting –_

Yeah. Probably not a good sign.

Anyway, I still needed to assign her to her post, and so I went looking.

_What was that noise?_

Carefully, I walked upstairs to the attic, following where I heard the sound coming from –

It sounded like a thud, someone hitting the floor-

_Oh god._

Okay, don't panic. Pacifica's probably fine –

_Nope okay we're panicking._

Quickly as I could, I ran up the stairs and burst into my bedroom, and saw Pacifica –

She was curled up on the floor, and she looked like she wasn't breathing.

Shit.

Oh-kay, okay. Uh –

Right.

Panic attack. Bound to happen to someone at some point –

Surprisingly, it turns out I didn't expect that person to be Pacifica. At all. I mean, she wasn't exactly last on the list, but – well. She was pretty close.

So –

"Pacifica!"

\- Okay. Right, cause that'll help. Um, what am I supposed to do?! Think, Man! Um -

"Pacifica! Hey –" might as well check, just to make sure –  _oh, no._  "– Oh god she's not breathing – um stories! Right soothing okay, okay, right – um – oh god – um –"

Stop.

Breathe.

_Don't you **dare**_ _panic, Dipper Pines. We don't need two of us out for the count._

Stories.

_Oh, hell if I can't tell a story after the summer I've had._

_"_ _Right._ Okay. So, one day, early-ish summer, Grunkle Stan hosted this really cheap carnival – remember? You got that chicken there, right? – um, anyway, me, Mable and Wendy went to the place, right? Free, because we're workers – and, um, Mable ran off somewhere – and so Wendy and I just – sort of hung out, and visited the different things there – and then she saw thing stuffed animal thing she wanted –  _oh god this isn't working, skip a bit –_  and I tried to get it for her. I failed, she got asked out by this –  _jerk –_ and that was terrible. My sister got a pig. Waddles. Skip some time, and we find this guy who has a time machine. And we use it, obviously. So, we use the machine, so I can stop her dating –  _him,_ and she can relive her happiest moment – winning Waddles. It, ah, fails a few times, et cetera, and we go through a trip through time, after a little… uh,  _disagreement_ , that made Mabel sad. So - Ah - I decided that I didn't want my sister to be all depressed, and um, used the time-travel device to, uh, go back to the original timeline – hey, actually, now I think about it, how did she remember anything about time travel; was it because I expected her to? Huh, anyway – um, next story -"

This isn't working  _thisisn'tworking –_

What should I do  _what should I do_  –

"I can't think of one damn - oh, and that was one heck of a day, I'm telling you – uh, the time travel day was, that's what I'm talking about, yeah -" wait –

_I_   _t's working stop talking for a **goddamn** **minute**_

Slowly, she lifted her head up and looked at me. Weakly, she said; "Hey - You can stop now. But - ah -  _thanks_. I guess. Uh - how's everything going - you know, with the plan." There was a lot of stuttering, her still slightly short breaths and  her – probably, I have no clue what panic attacks do, just a general idea of what might help –  still slowed down mind stopping her from being eloquent.

I blinked because still, that was a fast recovery, and also, I gave her what I hope was a reassuring smile. It could have been a grimace, I don't know. Her face was still slightly blank, but just as – if not more – open than it had been when in that hidden room with the paintings. She looked slightly disgusted, but what it was geared towards I don't know  _exactly_.

(I do have an  _idea_ , though.)

Belatedly, I realised she'd asked me a question. Oops.

Quickly, I morphed my face into a serious expression.

"Okay, so, so far we've just been gathering all the intel we have and separating out jobs between us all. Putting people into groups they can work with, and all that. We've got scavengers, defenders, and scouts set up, but I had to mediate far too many arguments between species for us to get much further - I had to set the Manotaurs up as the guards to stop them punching holes in the walls; they destroy stuff when they feel... well, any emotion, really. So, to be honest, not much, tensions are far too high to get any real planning or work done. So yeah, so far? It's not looking so good... but we'll see. Right now, I'm more worried about the person I found not breathing on the floor in our room, rocking back and forth. Are you alright, Pacifica?"

Uh, that was probably a bit blunt, actually. Never mind, she doesn't seem too bothered by my phrasing. And sure, I left some stuff out, but, hell. It's a good enough explanation.

Better than the one I gave the others, anyway. (For what had happened. We'd agreed beforehand, if there were any questions, to follow my story. I'm a surprisingly good liar. In general, not that it's that surprising in this particular situation, really, or even that difficult, since I stayed fairly close to what actually happened. Just left some more... personal stuff out. As you would. Oh, and nearly all of the details were left out. Because that stuff is Pines family confidential, along with those that already know the stuff anyway, like Soos and Wendy. Nearly all of the personal stuff was omitted, and I did not say  _exactly_ who caused the end of the world. Just that I wasn't in the right place to know, and neither were the others.

Which is kinda true  _butnotatallreallyandilefteverythingoutwithseeminglyonlystanthewiserwow. Ahem. Moving on._ )

She opened her mouth to reply but took a few seconds to start actually doing so, as if her brain was still working sluggishly.

I wonder if she knows that that's happening.

Finally, she starts speaking; "so, you know when Weirdmageddon started, and Cipher demonstrated his power to the masses? Well... my family, we were in town when that happened - front row seats."

Wow. okay then, she is not okay. Stupid question. I winced, and some form of emotion flashed across her blue eyes, too fast to really get a read on.

She continued. "So that was something." No kidding. "Well, Dad decided... he decided it would be a great idea to join bill  _andinreturngotalltheorficesinhisfaceswitchedround_." Dear god.  _Christ._ She'd had to watch that happen? "So yeah. Mom disappeared... I don't know what happened to her. I don't really think it'd help to know, to be honest." ...Yeah. She's probably right about that. Scratch that, she is right about that. Not knowing is one less thing to have filling your head when you should be concentrating on  ** _not falling apart_** stopping the world from ending."Then I came across Mr. Pines, Grenda and Old Man McGucket, and... well. Here we are now."

My eyes had widened when I heard about her dad, but it seems she's only noticing now. Swallowing, I replied, "Woah, Pacifica - I - I'm sorry you had to see that."

Because really, neither of us care much about her dad.

if that's messed up - which, yeah, it kinda is - then it's messed up. But he was a messed up man, using inhumane dog training techniques on a child. So yeah, I care more about her having to actually  _see_ that happening, then it actually happening to the man. No-one should have to see that happen to anyone.

_(Evenifthatperson **totallyfuckingdeservesit**_ no-onedeservesthat **yes** no **yes** _no_ -

Argh. It's morally wrong to think that anyone deserves that. Stop it.)

For some reason, something that closely resembled gratitude mixed with reluctant understanding and realization flashed across her face when I'd said that.

We're probably all really messed up by now, aren't we?

We'll have to sort that out when the world no longer needs saving.

_Or we won't. We're a stubborn bunch. **There's nothing wrong with us.**_

"Y-yeah. That - it. It happened. And, and it's over, now. Mostly. So yeah, I had a breakdown, it won't happen again. It  _can't_. You know that. It - mostly, its over. And now it's your turn. Tell me the stuff you censored out of your story - since I told you mine." Pacifica stated, because, really, it was only fair.

"Yeah. Okay. Um, I guess I should start at the beginning, Right?" Pacifica looked slightly worn out, like having a panic attack and everything that has happened since the end of the world has finally caught up with her. She tried for dry sarcasm, but it sounded a little flat - "That would make sense. Or, you know, start at the end. Whatever works."

That was kinda funny.

Anyway -

"Okay. So, this morning, Mabel and I were excited - her more than me - about our birthday, coming up in a weeks time. We'll be thirteen, just so you know."

Because thirteen was  _such_ a lucky number.

she didn't look very impressed, ( _and why would I want her to?),_  or seem to realize what I meant by specifically stating that it was our 13th birthday, and not just that we'd be having a birthday soon,  _aren't we just the **luckiest**_.

"Happy Birthday. Get on with it." Yeah, alright then. Probably should, at that.

"Okay, okay. Umm, fast forward, and Mabel has gone out - we both have walkie-talkies so we can communicate - she's gone out to invite people to the party and find a place to host it. And, um, me and Ford, my other Great Uncle, we went to go to this alien spaceship -" She looked disbelievingly at me.  _Seriously? Look around us man. The world's ended._ I think that allows for some suspension of disbelief. ( _is that how that phrase is used **goddamnit**  I need to check that later -)_

"-Hey, don't look at me like that; the world has literally ended and you question aliens? Anyway, we were going to find this adhesive, to glue the container for the rift that is now up in the sky - see that cross, up there? yeah, that, where all the demons came from -" I'm rambling now. She nods, impatient, and gives a little huff, as if to say 'get on with it' again, but without wasting breath. " - Right. so, um...  _complications_  happened, the alien security was activated, Ford was taken by this alien pod thing, and I...  _kindofusedanincrediblypowerfulmagnettoattachmyselftothepodthingandbringitdownwhilstinmidairandthenfoughtitontheground, and **wow** sayingthisoutloudmakesitsoundcoolerthanitwas _and Ford offered me to be his apprentice - discovering the secrets of gravity falls and the supernatural, and working for... well, basically my idol, and... well, I said yes." Looks like she didn't catch - or at least, register, what I said when I talked really fast -

I don't really want people knowing about that yet.

Might say I have 'lack of self-preservation' issues or something stupid like that.

She nodded as if that made perfect sense to her.  _F_ _inally, someone gets it, - out of the people that know and I've had time to speak to - get's that it makes sense for me to take that offer._

Because why  _wouldn't_  I have taken it?

"So, well... it turns out that my walkie-talkie was on for the whole conversation. Mabel... heard everything. I don't really know what happened on her side of things, but it was enough for her to be... to be even more upset than she normally would have been, and the way she heard about it was... not ideal, and everything went wrong from there. Next thing I know, she's running off into the woods, taking a backpack with her, and I'm having a conversation with Great Uncle Ford, and then we realize she took my bag, with the rift inside -"

This was one of the worse parts. Not really knowing what was going on, a chain of bad events that  _just kept happening_  -

and then the world ended.

_and I don't blame my_   _sister_   ** _butido_  ** _butidon'tbutido/don'tdo **do**  -_

Not the time for this, Dipper. Pull yourself together, man.

When I got back to the present, out of my own head, I saw that Pacifica, with dawning horror on her face, had understood the implications of what I had said.

I grimaced.

I know that I'm going to start ranting, maybe even forget she's even  _there_  if I start telling the rest of this story -

But she has a right to know. I have a feeling she only told me and the three she mentioned about her Dad, not the rest of the Fallsmen (i don't even remember who came up with that, I'm sorry.), and her mom... Well.

She probably didn't tell anyone about that. Except for me, that is.

I continued; "Yeah, it's as bad of a mess-up as it sounds. So Mabel ran off into the forest, and next thing I see is Bill Cipher  _corporeal, in our reality_ , floating up to the sky and fully opening the rift, letting thousands of horrors into our world and my sister is nowhere to be seen, and Ford is already planning how to get rid of Bill, and we go off to the clock tower and he shoots this one-time-use bill defeating gun - I know that it's annoying that its one shot only, truly - but  ** _misses_** , freaking  _misses_ , and there's a temporary hole in Bill's top hat, and Ford's tossing me his journals and I'm hiding and ford's being turned into a freaking  _gold statue and I can't bring myself to tell anyone this -"_

_Oh god, I'm telling her this -_

_Why am I telling her this?_

_"-_ and then I'm standing in front of Bill, and there is nothing I can do, and I think, 'you know what?  _fuck_  it.'-" because that is really rather an appropriate time to swear, to be honest - "and I punch him in the eye."

She blinked, gaping at me -

Either impressed or astounded by the stupidity of that last, desperate move. ( _why am I really hoping it's more of the - you_ _know what never mind I'll figure it out later)_

"Well, that was a stupid, desperate move. I'll give you that not many would have the guts to do it though."

_Ouch._  Harsh. Kind of a backhanded compliment. I relent that it was pretty stupid though.

_Reckless._

"Sorry. That was harsh. You tried, and this guy is an immortal, all-powerful demon - and, ugh, don't tell anyone, but -" she stopped, and frustrated, she puffed out her next breath. " _Ugh,_  I'm impressed, okay?!" She was all but yelling now, "You - you stood up to  _that-_ I could  _never do that,_ I can  _hardly_ stand up _to my parents_ and a _stupid..._ _ **bell**_ _of all things_. You're far braver than I gave - than anyone gives you credit for." There was a pause that it seemed only he noticed. "Don't ask me to say that all again, it was difficult enough the first time - how do you people make it look so easy to do that? Ugh don't answer just... just continue, we can talk after if you want. Just..."

She looked so tired after that... that _explosion_ of thought.

I'm pretty flattered though, to be honest.

But don't think I didn't notice that bell aside.

later, though.

Wearily, she added, "Just continue."

Somehow now mentally drained myself, I rub my face with my hand, and nod, once, -hopefully discretely- flicking my eyes to look at her's directly again, for a second, and look away, quickly.

I continue.

"Well, obviously that backfired, luckily not as much as I expected, as I am standing here now, talking about the event - so I got repelled backward. Skipping a little of me running away from two of his 'gang' members, and trying to find anyone whilst talking into my walkie-talkie - as if that'd help  _anything_  - and to after I found Wendy." That was a relief at the time - and still is now. I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't found her. For a second there, Pacifica looked extremely happy with herself. I wonder why?...

Anyway,

"So, Wendy gets my spirits up with a pep talk and the last box of food she had and some Pitt cola, and we made a plan to get to Mabel's bubble - her own little prison away from the terrors of the apocalypse. Soon, we find ourselves captured by Gideon and his Warriors, but, after a chase, I convinced him to give us the key to the bubble, and - now with Soos - all three of us enter the bubble while Gideon and his fellow prison escapees front-on-attack the Pyramid, and well... the next part is... something."

She snorted, probably understanding that that was not at all a good description of what the Mabel bubble was like, first setting eyes upon the 'prison'

"So basically, Bill had her trapped inside the perfect, Mabel World - where summer  _never ends_. And it's heavily inspired by the 80's. And 90's. It knew what you wanted - whatever you wanted, before you even knew you wanted it; and that should have been a clue that Mabel wasn't in complete control, she only thought she was - oh, right, yeah, everyone there treated her as if she were the ruler. and just, like, lots of her was the jury, and all her creations were there, and all her crushes as if they returned her feelings - The perfect Mabel world, right down to... to a  _better_  me. Which, by the way - not a better me, not at all, I _hated_ that guy - was called..." I let out an angry breath of air. "... right. It was called "Dippy Fresh". Just...  _why?_ " I felt my face adopt a confused expression, and she laughed a little.

_it was kinda a pretty sound. - wait. -_

Still smiling, she replied, "It's Mabel, Dipper. There is no rhyme or reason to her imagination, nor the things she does. Which can be great - or terrible, judging by the great big hole in the sky. And the fact that she replaced you. Ehrm, sorry."

she looked genuinely apologetic - though not for stating the truth, just for saying it so bluntly.

I'm not sure what expression came over my face as I responded. hopefully, it was at least partially positive.

I need it to have been.

"Yeah, everyone's pretty disappointed with Mabel for that. And, yeah, I see why, but haven't any of them wanted to replace family members with better versions of them when they're angry at them? I just - I guess why I'm not refuting it completely is because... because  _I don't know what I'd do in her place._  What  _my_  bubble would be like. I just don't know and - yeah. That's why I don't. Refute it, I mean."

Okay.

So there might be a little lie in there since my fingers are crossed behind my back.

_andi'mnotscaredofwhati'mlyingabout_   _ **yesiamnoi'mnotnthat'swhatscaresme**  _ **I'mnotscared-**

ahem.

Hopefully, she didn't recognize that I was scared.

(i do really wonder what my bubble would be like though. just for the record. But in her place? I think I might know what I might've done, and it's the fact that that doesn't scare me that scares me, if that makes sense.)

Softly she replied, in an understanding tone, "Yeah, okay, I get it." I glanced at her, and said, thoughtfully, "You would, wouldn't you? Anyway-" We really  _do_ need to get on with this if we want to be finished anytime soon. "some stuff happened  _andisawsomethingithoughtiwasoveralready_ but it doesn't really matter," phew, it looks like she was not paying attention for that part - "and after that, I asked Mabel to leave, but we had to go to trial. So she tried to make an argument to stay, and I showed her why leaving, and fighting for our world would be way better than hiding in a fake one. And we awkwardly hugged as siblings do, the world fell apart into nightmares around us as we rode to the outside walls of the bubble on waddles, the giant version, and Mabel stood on the back of his head holding a giant needle and popped the bubble. We made our way back here, and you were present for the rest. So yeah, that's my apocalypse story."

With an odd expression, she was silent for a few seconds. almost distantly, she said, "Well done on not dying, dork." Uhm, okay. "Thanks, I think."

Now it's time to talk about her problems again.

That rather terrible one, in particular.

Noticing the direction that the conversation was now going towards, she started to look a little worried, a little like she really wanted to not be here right now. Well, too bad. We're doing this. Now.

You know it's not stupid to be afraid of that bell, right? When it rang, it never meant anything good - and, you seem to forget that this is a tried and tested method, an inhumane method, of controlling a dog. It has been used on people in the past, and, just like you, even though they were afraid they stood up to the owner of the bell, eventually, and hey - the definition of courage is being able to do something, even in the face of fear. Like when you saved everyone when you stood up to your dad and the bell to free your family from the curse, and, more importantly, free the people who were turned to wood. Thanks for that, by the way." I smiled at her, genuinely, and noticed a very faint blush was decorating her cheeks.  _it was kinda -_  nope. not going there. "Uh - yeah. Thanks. And - you too? In return - oh whatever. Just - it was something I did, because - because it was  _right to,_ do so. I guess."

She's doing a lot better at being a good person than a lot of people are, and she's only been at it for a few days. ( _weirdly enough, and I'm not going to analyze it, but I'm oddly... proud, for her. she certainly can't see how well she's been doing at being a good person, so far.)_

Without it really being a conscious decision, I placed my hand on her shoulder. Removing it, and -hopefully- smiling in a way that was meant to reassure.

Her expression went unreadable again.

and seemingly from out of nowhere, she near tackled me in a hug and was quite shocked, so I stood stock still.

We stayed like that for a second or so, and then I realized, belatedly, that this was a  _hug,_  and I was just standing there, and her arms were tightening around my neck which -

Ouch.

Awkwardly - as if this wasn't awkward enough already - I hugged her back.

She relaxed, and I also realized I hadn't noticed how tense she was.

_Oh. right. probably her first hug that she wasn't going to ask him to forget, along with bribe money._

It doesn't look like she'll be letting go anytime soon.

Alright then.

I mean, this is kinda...

_Nice._ I guess.

* * *

So they sat there, just hugging slightly, listening to the sounds of the end of the world, the people in the house, and just sitting. Hugging. Thinking.

And yeah, maybe their eyes are damp.

But they'll ignore that when they stop.

later.

 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FFN A/N:  
> So hey guys! just letting you know thanks for the reviews letting me know about that little... ha... problem with the formatting. it's been updated and stuff, check it out! and here is that promised second chapter in Dipper's pov. This took several hours, ugh. See you guys later!
> 
> AO3 Notes:  
> Just separating them out into the actual chapters and fixing up the notes situation. Sorry about this.


	3. Chapter 3: Her, & Chapter 4: Worst Sister Of The Year Award.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some days were the fucking worst. Some more than others. The world has ended, so this one(?) is already pretty bad.
> 
> But then he just has to bring up her, and now this is pretty much going to always be the worst day of her existence.
> 
> Fuck, Wendy thought. Fuck.  
> ~~~  
> Wendy finds a person on the roof at her place, and is very much annoyed with who that person is.
> 
> Meanwhile, Mabel is in a constant state of denial. because this whole thing is totally not her fault guys. Totally.

 

 

* * *

Wendy had been having the worst. fucking. Day.

_Ever._

She wasn't even sure it was a  _day,_ really. it could have been weeks, months -

Hours. Seconds.

Or no time at all. Time had stopped after all. Sorta. There was still an innate sort of ... feeling, of time passing, y'know? that instinctual knowledge, even if you can't see outside, or even if it hasn't changed at all and you  _can_ see it, you know time has passed.

Or your time sense is way off wack and it feels like frickin'  _hours_  and it's not even been two.

That could also be how much time has passed since the triangle guy had taken over.

(Not that she'd ever really been the superstitious type, but she figured even saying his name in her head might be dangerous. Considering the type of creature he was - a so-called 'mind demon'.

Yeah, that'd probably be  _fucking stupid._ )

She did have to admit that she probably looked badass though. Not gonna lie.

but never mind that.

The important thing right now? Her dad was close to  _tears._

And there was something so inherently  _wrong_ with that image - (when there wasn't a bottle of alcohol and bitter memories on a bitter day involved), that she had to do something. (and unlike those times, she couldn't just take the bottle away and deal with the drunken ramblings her brothers never, would never have to -

because they didn't look so much like  _her._  So much that on his worst days -

Wendy was no better than a ghost of his past to him. To Dan. To her father.

She envied her brothers sometimes.)

So she quietly escorted Dan with her to another room, exchanging a surprisingly understanding and non-pitying glance with Stan, of all people.

Actually, now that she thinks about it, maybe it wasn't so surprising at all.

So they entered the spare room, empty now, with only a couple spare chairs and a rolled-up rug with the label 'Don't touch for anything's sake.' on it. She wondered why that was, but dismissed it.

Now was a time to be serious, a time not for wandering thoughts.

So she sat her dad down on a chair and pulled up one of her own, sitting backward on it and crossing her hands under her head like she used to when having 'serious chats' with her dad.

Maybe it'd help. She has no fucking clue.

And so they sat there in silence, Wendy waiting and Dan looking for the right words to say. good ones. Heck, any'd do.

And so it was, for a little while, silent in the room, except for the quiet, closed-mouthed breathing of a teenaged girl, and the louder, open-mouthed breathing of her father.

* * *

That while didn't end up lasting all that long, to be honest.

Dad's opening his mouth to speak now. No sound is coming out though.

_I just want to get this over with._

"They're gone. My boys..."He looked so helpless, his voice was so hoarse that in that moment I never pitied him more. He suddenly looked up at me. "Wendy, my little firecracker, I'm such a terrible father.  _they_ came, and they  _took_ my boys... I didn't know where you were...  _hell..._ " he looked so frustrated with himself. He ran a shaking hand through his hair, his breathing short and quick. " _I couldn't stop them."_ He looked at me, anguish displayed more clearly on his face now than it ever was when in a drunken haze and I belatedly realized that he cared more about us then the ghost of a woman long gone.

What a time to realize, eh?

Oh, I'm not saying he doesn't love us - he just seems to love us... less than  _her,_  more often than not.

Far,  _far,_  more often than not.

Apparently, I was wrong. Wouldn't be the first time. Emotions are stupid. And difficult to figure out.

Relationships aren't exactly my forte, is what I'm saying here.

he swallowed, hard, and continued. "I... don't know what I'd have done if you had been captured. If you hadn't entered with the group when you did. Probably something stupid. And reckless. And 'manly'." he laughed bitterly. "What does being manly mean, really? If I'm manly, then manly isn't  _good enough._  Not to save anyone." His eyes were getting distant.

Right. Anything like this would always lead back to  _her._ Someway, or another.

The woman he chose to only partially forget.

The lady  _she doesn't remember._

(But is so. fucking  _constantly_  compared to, it's ridiculous. And, yeah. She's not happy about that. Who would be?)

"Couldn't save the boys. You didn't need me, never have, never will. Couldn't save her." he looked at me, through me, and my feelings were bitter again.

"you look so much like her that it hurts sometimes."

Well.  _That was new._

Oh, and  _ouch._

He blinked, surprised, but didn't take it back. Those words had been a long time coming anyway.

It was a relief to have them out.

Shut up. I know what you're thinking. I'm relieved, really ( _no I'm not. it hurts, man, it fucking hurts.)_

_Shit._

Can't hide in my own head. Damn. Forgot that.

"I'm sorry." He apologized, but the words rang hollow. My replied smile and "It's fine" did too.

He averted his eyes, and with a fierce feeling of anger, white hot, I thought -

_you should be ashamed._

\- but I squashed those thoughts. Not right now.

(N _ot ever. Please.)_

I coughed, awkwardly, and shifted in my chair. Quietly, he said, eyes still focused on a point on the wall somewhere, blatantly trying not to look at me, "I have your gear. Survival stuff. Armor-like clothes. Climbing gear. Ax-sharpening kit. All the stuff you need. It's in the hall if you want it."

And with those... awkward last words, he crossed the room with a slow pace and a half-hearted pat on my shoulder, and with another quiet sniff covered by a cough, my dad left the room.

... It's too fuckin' stuffy in here all of a sudden.

I need some space.

So, I walked out of the room, and, inconspicuously grabbing the survival gear bag on the way - I'm taking it. it's useful. - I went into the bathroom, got changed into the - admittedly awesome looking - armor-like clothes and put on the gear, then, shouldering the bag, left the room to go to the roof. My place.

For some fucking  _space._

Ha. Did I really think I'd get that?

If I've learnt anything from living in Gravity Falls, it's that - especially during apocalypses, which, hello -

You never get a goddamn _break **.**_

_(If you were wondering, I was intending to grieve about my brothers. but I guess my needs'll have to wait for now.)_

* * *

Mabel had been having a rough time of it, as far as she was concerned. Pretty much as soon as Dipper had given up on trying to mediate everything and went to go find Pacifica, who'd run off sometime earlier, Mabel decided to go hide somewhere.

She needed some time to think.

And, like, totally not feel guilty. Nope.

It's not like she helped end the world, or…

Well. What happened in Mabel Land stays in Mabel Land, in her opinion.

(Really, she'd come up here to avoid questions she didn't know the answer to, and if she did, she couldn't, wouldn't answer them.)

_Dippy Fresh was her idea._

Nope. Nope. Not happening. Not thinking about that – Nope.

For a little while, she sat there, just thinking about nothing and everything – Like trying not to think about pink elephants, or (for her) cute boys, trying to avoid thinking about what happened was harder than anything else.

She couldn't do this now, she'd deal later.

Later.

* * *

Wendy was  _really_  annoyed.

_Someone was in her space, goddamnit._

'I guess I've no time to think right now. Later, then.' She thought as she walked over the roof towards her place, the one she'd made to get away from things, to mess around and to think.

Oh. It's just Mabel. Okay.

_(notokaynotokaynotokay **shutit** -)_

Oh,  _hell._

I'm still pretty annoyed with her, to be honest.

She's crying, I belatedly realized.

Dammit. I don't want to feel bad for her right now.

Oh, whatever.

I walked over to Mabel, and plonked myself down on the edge of the roof, right next to her. She jumped slightly, startled, and I grabbed onto her shoulder instinctually to stop her from falling off. She smiled in thanks, and I scowled, then let go.

Not that I want her to die or be injured, I'm just _not in the mood_  for this shit right now.

Why the hell does no-one comfort me when I need it? Why is it always me that helps others? I have the need for comforting too, y'know.

Anyway.

I glare at the sky as I wait for Mabel to say something.

I may be waiting a while.

* * *

"So…" I said awkwardly, with a fake bright tone. Because I'm totally just the greatest right now, yup!

Totally.

Wendy kept on glaring at the sky for some reason – what did it ever do to her? If she should glare at anything it should be nothing because everything is awesome right now.

Maybe she could glare at the evil isosceles triangle.

I wouldn't mind that too much.

_Everythingshouldbehappy **whyiseverythingnothappy** ican'tdothestuffanymore **inevercouldinthefirstplace** -_

**Stop**. Everything is  _fine_.

"Um…" I… well, it's not really  _said_ , but I made that 'um' noise. Like confused humming, which is totally positive.

She let out an angry breath and looked askance at me for a second, before resuming her staring contest with the _totally normal_  sky.

It's not like there's a giant rip there that is not  _completelytotally **ohgoshwhatdidIdo** -_ my fault, in any way, shape or form.

Nope.

"Why'd  _you_  come up here?" Wendy almost demanded.

I was hoping she'd be over the 'disliking me very strongly' thing by now. Guess not. Also, ignoring the emphasis on 'you'. That never was there in the first place, nope it was not.

"Oh, just for some fresh air. Space. You know, it's a cool place here. Perfect for chillin' out." I flashed a totally  _completely sincere **whywontshejustgoaway**_  smile at her.

Her scowl deepened.

"Now is not the time for 'chillin' out' Mabel." Her tone was sharp enough to make me wince. "You don't even need it, unlike most of us. You were all safe up in your little bubble of a perfect world with 'complete control' and a better brother to boot." She sounded bitter.  _It'dbeworseifsheknew **there'snothingtoknow**_  – Stop.

Everything is  _ **fine**_.

_OMG, I can't believe my bro-bro doesn't hate me right now.-_

"I – uh – I didn't replace him," I said, indignantly. Because that is the truth  _and nothing but the truth **you liar.**_

She still looked utterly annoyed with the situation. "And be glad you "weren't" the one to make all that stuff. Otherwise…"

I fell for it.

"Otherwise what?"

She looked so completely serious.

"You'd have lost him. And… you really don't want to lose your brother. Especially if that brother is a guy like Dipper. He'd do anything for you." She looked slightly angry, but at what I don't know. "Anything." She looked at the sky, and then back to me. "You made this happen because you couldn't handle the idea of being apart from your brother for a few months of the year when you're not here. When you go to some fancy expensive art school and don't even think twice about what Dipper wants, which, by the way,  _is_  Gravity Falls,  _is_ the supernatural. I want you to remember this. What  _you_  did. The day you ended the world because you overreacted and didn't think about how great an opportunity this was for Dipper. Staying at a place that has likeminded people, and all his friends? Why wouldn't he?" She looked frustrated. "But  _no_. In the end, you got what you wanted." She looked me straight in the eyes. "And he'll  ** _never_**  get what  _he_  wants. Because of you. And you had the audacity to replace him?"

Something must have flashed across my eyes because her's flashed with triumph.

"Yeah. I know that Dippy Fresh… thing, wasn't there originally.  _You_  made that. You  _wanted_  that, it was a  _conscious decision_." She looked darkly amused. "Well  _done_  kiddo. You just won the worst sister of the year award." She flashed her teeth in the approximation of a grin. "And  _I_  got  ** _second place._** " With those last, slightly confusing words, she got up from the edge of the roof, and, using a tree to get down, went through the front door of the Mystery Shack.

Probably just for a cool looking dramatic exit, because why not? Dramatics are awesome.

Today though?

_Not_  awesome.

**_And it's all my fault._ **

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FFN A/N 1:  
> Hey guys! so here's a new chapter. This is at least half in third person Wendy pov, and half first person Wendy Pov. Just to spice things up a little. There's a fair amount of swearing in this one. but what fifteen year old doesn't. Especially when the world has ended. And in their own head. It's pretty repetitive too, so there's that.
> 
> Hope this doesn't mean I have to up the rating. That would be the worst.  
> ~~~  
> FFN A/N 2:
> 
> Not too sure on how well the Pov thing went. I'm also not exactly sure about why my headcanons for Wendy's missing family member went wild with me...
> 
> but they did. And thus this piece of writing is what you just read.
> 
> Rather than, oh, I don't know.
> 
> A happy one.
> 
> Wendy's brothers were kinda put on a back burner, but be warned that there'll be yelling and Wendy unhappy with a certain person for taking brother(s) for granted, in the next one.
> 
> Possibly. For all I know, the next one could be about Soos.
> 
> Highly unlikely though. I'm not really sure how to write the guy, truthfully. I also want to thank all of you guys who reviewed this story about me needing to fix it -
> 
> I probably would have forgotten about it, to be honest, and left the thing unfinished.
> 
> So yeah. kudos to that.
> 
> I really do hope people enjoy my stuff, and aren't just annoyed with the formatting. I was too, to be fair. But still. So, do you like it? constructive criticism is welcome, there are always ways to improve writing.
> 
> (you wouldn't believe how many stories I've read today that spelled our as 'are'. or mixed up your and you're.
> 
> would not believe.)
> 
> Sorry about the long authors note. none of you probably even read this. goodbye.  
> ~~~  
> FFN A/N 3: hey guys! so, in this one, as you can see, I mixed it up a little with two different POVs in one chapter. I know, shocking, isn't it? anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter.
> 
> Oh, and to refute all the 'you hate Mabel ur a terrible person' things people - I don't mind Mabel. I certainly don't hate her, but I do see her flaws, much as I see all of their flaws. And that particular episode takes the cake and made me dislike her a fair bit during those parts, because Jesus Christ girl, you don't just do that to your siblings, jeez.
> 
> So yeah. I also would think that Wendy would be quite mad at her, as this wendy seems to be a bit...
> 
> a fair bit different to cannon wendy, at any rate.
> 
> and that is how this wendy would react. I'm sorry, but that's how it works.
> 
> Tarah!
> 
> AO3 Notes: So, this kinda really does seem Mabel-bashy. The thing is here, I was playing devil's advocate through Wendy. Mabel is not at fault for what happened, just as neither is Dipper or whatever. The only person to blame is Bill Cipher, in my opinion.


	4. Chapter 4: Worst Sister Of The Year Award (Wendy & Mable POVs)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wendy finds a person on the roof at her place, and is very much annoyed with who that person is.  
> Meanwhile, Mabel is in a constant state of denial. because this whole thing is totally not her fault guys. Totally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this will be the last time I reupload this fic I swear to god

Mabel had been having a rough time of it, as far as she was concerned. Pretty much as soon as Dipper had given up on trying to mediate everything and went to go find Pacifica, who'd ran off some time earlier, Mabel decided to go hide somewhere.

She needed some time to think.

And, like, totally not feel guilty. Nope.

It's not like she helped end the world, or…

Well. What happened in Mabel Land stays in Mabel Land, in her opinion.

(Really, she'd come up here to avoid questions she didn't know the answer to, and if she did, she couldn't, wouldn't answer them.)

_Dippy Fresh was her idea._

Nope. Nope. Not happening. Not thinking about that – Nope.

For a little while, she sat there, just thinking about nothing and everything – Like trying not to think about pink elephants, or (for her) cute boys, trying to avoid thinking about what happened was harder than anything else.

She couldn't do this now, she'd deal later.

Later.

* * *

Wendy was _really_ annoyed.

_Someone was in her space, goddamnit._

'I guess I've no time to think right now. Later, then.' She thought, as she walked over the roof towards her place, the one she'd made to get away from things, to mess around and to think.

Oh. It's just Mabel. Okay.

_(notokaynotokaynotokay **shutit** -)_

Oh, _hell._

I'm still pretty annoyed with her, to be honest.

She's crying, I belatedly realized.

Dammit. I don't want to feel bad for her right now.

Oh, whatever.

I walked over to Mabel, and plonked myself down on the edge of the roof, right next to her. She jumped slightly, startled, and I grabbed onto her shoulder instinctually to stop her from falling off. She smiled in thanks, and I scowled, then let go.

Not that I want her to die or be injured, I'm just _not in the mood_ for this shit right now.

Why the hell does no-one comfort me when I need it? Why is it always me that helps others? I have need for comforting too, y'know.

Anyway.

I glare at the sky as I wait for Mabel to say something.

I may be waiting a while.

* * *

"So…" I said awkwardly, with a fake bright tone. Because I'm totally just the greatest right now, yup!

Totally.

Wendy kept on glaring at the sky for some reason – what did it ever do to her? If she should glare at anything it should be nothing, because everything is awesome right now.

Maybe she could glare at the evil isosceles triangle.

I wouldn't mind that too much.

_Everythingshouldbehappy **whyiseverythingnothappy** ican'tdothestuffanymore **inevercouldinthefirstplace** -_

**Stop**. Everything is _fine_.

"Um…" I… well, it's not really _said_ , but I made that 'um' noise. Like confused humming, which is totally positive.

She let out an angry breath and looked askance at me for a second, before resuming her staring contest with the _totally normal_ sky.

It's not like there's a giant rip there that is not _completelytotally **ohgoshwhatdidIdo** -_ my fault, in any way, shape or form.

Nope.

"Why'd _you_ come up here?" Wendy almost demanded.

I was hoping she'd be over the 'disliking me very strongly' thing by now. Guess not. Also, ignoring the emphasis on 'you'. That never was there in the first place, nope it was not.

"Oh, just for some fresh air. Space. You know, it's a cool place here. Perfect for chillin' out." I flashed a totally _completely sincere **whywontshejustgoaway**_ smile at her.

Her scowl deepened.

"Now is not the time for 'chillin' out' Mabel." Her tone was sharp enough to make me wince. "You don't even need it, unlike most of us. You were all safe up in your little bubble of a perfect world with 'complete control' and a better brother to boot." She sounded bitter. _It'dbeworseifsheknew **there'snothingtoknow**_ – Stop.

Everything is _**fine**_.

_OMG I can't believe my bro-bro doesn't hate me right now.-_

"I – uh – I didn't replace him." I said, indignantly. Because that is the truth _and nothing but the truth **you liar.**_

She still looked utterly annoyed with the situation. "And be glad you "weren't" the one to make all that stuff. Otherwise…"

I fell for it.

"Otherwise what?"

She looked so completely serious.

"You'd have lost him. And… you really don't want to lose your brother. Especially if that brother is a guy like Dipper. He'd do anything for you." She looked slightly angry, but at what I don't know. "Anything." She looked at the sky, and then back to me. "You made this happen because you couldn't handle the idea of being apart from your brother for a few months of the year, when you're not here. When you go to some fancy expensive art school, and don't even think twice about what Dipper wants, which, by the way, _is_ Gravity Falls, _is_ the supernatural. I want you to remember this. What _you_ did. The day you ended the world because you overreacted and didn't think about how great an opportunity this was for Dipper. Staying at a place that has likeminded people, and all his friends? Why wouldn't he?" She looked frustrated. "But _no_. In the end, you got what you wanted." She looked me straight in the eyes. "And he'll **_never_** get what _he_ wants. Because of you. And you had the audacity to replace him?"

Something must have flashed across my eyes, because her's flashed with triumph.

"Yeah. I know that Dippy Fresh… thing wasn't there originally. _You_ made that. You _wanted_ that, it was a _conscious decision_." She looked darkly amused. "Well _done_ kiddo. You just won the worst sister of the year award." She flashed her teeth in the approximation of a grin. "And _I_ got **_second place._** " With those last, slightly confusing words, she got up from the edge of the roof, and, using a tree to get down, went through the front door of the Mystery Shack.

Probably just for a cool looking dramatic exit, because why not? Dramatics are awesome.

Today though?

 _Not_ awesome.

**_And it's all my fault._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FFN A/N: hey guys! so, in this one, as you can see, I mixed it up a little with two different povs in one chapter. I know, shocking, isn't it? anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter.
> 
> Oh, and to refute all the 'you hate mabel ur a terrible person' things people - I don't mind mabel. I certainly don't hate her, but I do see her flaws, much as I see all of their flaws. And that particular episode takes the cake and made me dislike her a fair bit during those parts, because Jesus Christ girl, you don't jus do that to your siblings, jeez.  
> So yeah. I also would think that Wendy would be quite mad with her, as this wendy seems to be a bit...  
> a fair bit different to cannon wendy, at any rate, and that is how this wendy would react. I'm sorry, but that's how it works.
> 
> Tarah!


	5. Chapter 5: Wendy and Dipper are bros, Pacifica and Mabel aren't.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary = Wendy and Dipper have a heart to heart about siblings and shit.   
> Also, there is mention of past one sided canonical wendip. So leave if that shit disgusts you.   
> If it does, not sure how exactly you made it through the first and a bit of the second season.  
> Shit's everywhere then, man.

**Dipper POV)**

It's been a few minutes (read: fifteen) since I sent Pacifica on to her station - she's helping sort out the jobs that people will be doing, giving orders and such. Nothing too taxing, because she's still a little dazed, but something that requires her full attention so she won't have to think too much about anything.

And no, i didn't consider this for about ten minutes. Don't be ridiculous.

_Anyway._

Now, most everyone is set up at their stations, doing their part and all that, except for...

Well, except for Mabel, Wendy, and me. But I'm currently getting people to _do their damn jobs,_ _ **christ.**_

Is it really so hard? (Don't answer that.)

Moving on.

So right now I'm just looking for Wendy -

Who just conveniently came through the front door. What a coincidence.

Well. Better go talk to her then.

* * *

(Pacifica POV)

Ugh.

People do not do what they are told.

Might be because I'm like, twelve, but still. The end of the world is happening, and you all seem perfectly happy to listen to Dipper.

It's like they're not listening simply because I'm a Northwest.

_Oh wait. That's totally why they're not listening. How could I forget?_

Everyone hates us.

**_Yay._ **

They're yelling again.

Ah, hell to it. Mr. Pines can deal alongside Grenda. She's got a strong voice. They'll be fine.

I've had enough.

_This is probably what Dipper felt like earlier. He's not much of the mediator kind._

Enough of that. Moving swiftly on -

What's that?

A ladder to the roof? Lord, why don't we have someone on watch up there, or -

Nope, it's not even boarded up.

...It wouldn't hurt to look, right? Just check what's up there?

Nah. Eyeballs haven't been spotted near here for a while now, actually. Almost as if...

Never mind. Forget what I just said.

I hefted the trapdoor open, and hoisted myself up onto the roof.

Woah. Almost forgot about that sky. _Jesus._

Sigh. Never mind that.

I pull myself up onto the Mystery sign, and drop down onto the Shack (ha, more like 'hack') sign below.

Oh. Look who it is.

Mabel.

The star of the show.

Wonderful.

Oh well. Might as well see why she's not doing anything useful. Unless this is what she's supposed to be doing. Which could be the case, you never know.

I drop down onto the roof, and she turns around. An uncertain smile breaks across her face.

"Oh, hey! Pacifica! C'mere, sit down." She waved her hand at me, beckoning. I hesitate. Her smile turns slightly playful. "Ah, c'mon Pacifica. I don't bite." I sigh. Looks like I don't have much of a choice without seeming rude. I join her sitting on the edge of the roof.

Time to talk with The Bringer Of The End Times.

Time to talk with Mabel.

_She doesn't know I know what I know. This might make things interesting._

I smile slightly.

"Hey, Mabel. What brings you up here?"

* * *

_(Dipper POV just in case you wanted to know what you should be able to tell anyway soon)_

"Hey dork" She grinned at me. "How're you goin'?"

I smiled back. It's just the kinda thing you can't help doing when someone looks genuinely pleased to see you, and when you're genuinely pleased to see them.

"Hey Wendy. I'm doing good. Everything's going as expected, which is to say not smoothly, but no-one's hit anyone yet." Well. Unless you count a portrait of a clown as a person. I don't even know where Stan got that from. Oh well, he probably stole it.

I'm surprisingly okay with that.

She nodded, grin fading. "Yeah, that's something at least." She looked back at the door, then back to me. "Just saw your sis," she jerked her head upwards, indicating what I suspected to be the roof. "In my hang out spot." She sighed. "So that scratched out my plan to sit and think for a few minutes."

I suddenly realized how worn she looked.

We've all been through a lot...

And I really don't wan't another panic attack on my hands...

I _think_ the attic is free...

I mean, we've painted over the bill window, so it's pitch black in there without a flashlight, but still.

It's away from everything...

I shifted, awkwardly rubbing my arm. "The attic's free, I think." I offered, hesitantly.

She looked confused. "The attic? I thought your bedroom was in the attic."

Oh, right.

"There's two attics." I added, hurriedly."One is Mabel and mine's bedroom, and the other is this... empty room with a window seat and literally nothing else except for a not working light bulb in the center. You'd need a flashlight but..."She took a flashlight off of her belt and looked at me quizzically, one eyebrow raised. "You already have one so it doesn't matter." I finished.

She smiled, dropping the eyebrow and lowering the flashlight. "Yeah, dude. Let's go see the creepy attic room."

I nodded, smiling slightly, and lead the way.

* * *

 

* * *

_(Paz POV because writing in Mabel is difficult, it is late, and i am lazy.)_

"Hey Mabel. What brings you up here?" I asked, because that's a valid question. Mabel likes crowds, attention, and this is the opposite of that - hiding away from everyone, slightly hidden inside her sweater. She looks less overpowering and a lot smaller like this, I reflected.

_Easier to handle._

She smiled at me, all teeth and braces.

"Oh, you know" she replied, grinning. "Jus' chillin'. Try'na... Enjoy the view?" I noticed that her grin faltered ever so slightly, and the last (weak) sentence ended lilted-ly, as if it were a question.

She's lying.

"So, Pacifica. What brings _you_ up here?" Ah.

Well. Two can play at that game, Mabel Pines. Two can play.

I smiled winningly, all perfection and utter falseness.

It's not like she's ever paid attention to any genuine smiles I put forth.

(Gah, why is my language totally formal right now? Ugh. Whatever.)

"Oh, you know. Just looking for a place to just _be_ for a bit, and saw this trapdoor, and was like, 'I wonder what's up there' and I came to have a look. You know, I've never actually been to the inside of the shack before, right? Just the front porch".

She looked genuinely shocked at that, as if it was so odd that a member of the Northwest family, the crème de la crème of the Gravity Fallsian rich society, had never been to some run-down shack in the middle of the woods. I mean, come on. Be real, here.

Still smiling, I replied to her expression.

"Yep. Never been, not even once, before that ghost problem... thing."

She cocked her head to the side. "Question. Did you ever want to?"

Well of course. But it's not like it means anything. Meant anything, I mean.

Yeah.

"Sure, I guess. Not that it mattered."

She looked confused.

"Why not?"

Can she honestly be so naive? Well, at least this shows Dipper betrayed none of my trust in him. Shows it wasn't... misplaced.

Shows he didn't tell her my secrets.

"Because." I said, because we really don't know each other all that well.

I shrugged. "That's how it is."

She looked troubled. "That's not how it should be." Well, no shit Sherlock. "No." I agreed, "But it is."

Lord, this girl.

She looked to the sky. "Right about now," she started quietly, completely changing the topic and very nearly catching me off guard.

Nearly. Not quite.

She continued. "We should be able to see the stars." She looked at me, then back at the sky. "Right there..." she pointed at the split seam in the sky, her hand unsteady and her eyes unfocused, "Right there would be the big... or was it little? Well, it was one of the Dippers at any rate. Odd, isn't it?"

Kinda. Probably just a coincidence. Or _Him,_ messing with the Pines family.

 _Messing with Dipper_.

"Probably just a coincidence."

Her eyes were still distant. "Dipper doesn't believe in coincidences."

"I'm not Dipper. Neither are you."

"I know."

"So why does it matter?"

"I'm taking some... advice. Some... pointers. I'm trying to lose first place. Get rid of my award. It's difficult though."

What _is_ she talking about?

"What? Mabel-"

She interrupted me. " _I_ replaced _him_."

What?

Wait - _What?_

"You did _what_?" I already knew about Dippy Fresh. But, same as Dipper, I had assumed that Bill made him.

(Well, you know what they say about assuming things.)

She seemed calm, but only because she seemed so... distant. Far away. Lost in her own head.

And like I said. I barely know her.

For all I know she is calm. She could just as easily be freaking out right now... but since she's the type to _end_ the freaking ** _world_** when she does so, I'm not gonna place my bets on her being in the state of freaking out, not right now.

Hopefully, never, _ever_ again.

"Like I said. I replaced my bro-bro with a... more supportive, accepting version. He was also a cooler one as well. " Wow. If I were Dipper, way to rub salt in the wound.

Mabel didn't say any reasons.

Probably because, since it was a world purely revolving around her, all her reasons for anything _had_ to be selfish.

She doesn't want to admit too much to herself at once.

_At least she gets the choice._

* * *

 

* * *

_(Wendy POV -)_

As Dipper lead the way to the second attic (which I didn't know about. Man, I swear this place gets bigger every time I come here.) my thoughts wandered.

Nothing too serious though. little, inane things, things about suff in the shack.

Like that clown painting. What's up with that creepy dude? Seriously. That shit would not be okay to see in the dark.

_At least it's not another fucking triangle._

I mean, seriously. There were so many triangles and Dream Demon thingies (I kinda got confused with the terminology. He's a dream demon, not a mind one. I don't really see all that much difference, but it matters to Dip so I'll roll with it.) in this house - it was _insane._ And I mean that literally, there were some in invisible ink, with the ramblings of a madman written all over the walls, floor and even ceiling.

Dipper's a pretty good liar, but I like to think I know him well enough to tell if he is, and...

He _said_ all the writings in the twins' bedroom were written before they ever got there...

I noticed the cork-board was carefully hung. _Very_ carefully hung.

What I'm getting at is that there was probably writing behind it that wasn't written by that author guy.

Ford, I think his name was.

But that doesn't matter. What matters _to me,_ is the person who wrote the writings on the wall, the ones behind the cork-board...

It worries me who they most likely belong to.

_Shit. Thoughts got serious. Later, dude. Later._

I shook myself mentally. Not right now man. In like, two minutes. Jesus.

...

Oh, well, more like now actually. Dipper's stopped in front of a ladder leading to a trap door.

We're in the twins' bedroom

"Ha!" I said, triumphantly. "Knew it."

He scratched the back of his head, awkwardly. "Uh, yeah. You have to enter from here - so _technically_ this isn't even an attic bedroom. 'S just a bedroom." His smile was half-hearted, his eyes concerned.

Shit _,_ alright _fine_. We're doing this.

My smile fades. "Alright dude. Lead the way."

He does.

* * *

 

* * *

_(Mabel Pov. Shit, son. An actual Mabel pov, the wonders never cease. If you can't tell, i'm writing this pov and the previous one the day after i wrote the first ones. Whoop.)_

Mabel was siting outside, **not** enjoying the view, _totally not_ ** _butyeahtotally_** in sweater town, (swiftly coming out of it), looking at her mind's image of what the sky should look like right now, rather than... _this,_ thinking over things.

Like what Wendy said. That is a thing that happened and she needs to think on those things she said.

_and like totally not take it into account **but whatever-**_

Someone else is here.

There were light footfalls, then a slightly louder thud of someone dropping onto the rooftop from the sign behind her.

I turn around plastering a totally **_not_** convincing smile on my face -

Oh, it's Pacifica. Okay then.

I beckon her over. "Oh, hey! Pacifica! C'mere, sit down."She hesitates, and I change my smile to a more playfully teasing one "Ah, c'mon Pacifica. I don't bite." She sighed, seemingly resignedly.

_Like she didn't quite manage to conceal it._

She joined me in sitting on the edge of the roof, and I cease swinging my legs, and bring them up to my chest. I'm totally not returning to sweater town. This position is just more comfortable, that is _all._

"Hey Mabel," Pacifica starts, "What brings you up here?"

_can't tell the truth_ _**can't tell the truth** _ _**can't tell the truth -** _

I smile at her... well, more like a **_false_** grin than a smile, but A for effort.

"Oh, you know" I replied. "Jus' chillin'. Try'na... Enjoy the view?" Gosh, that was not the best lie. I'm not so good at doing this sorta thing on the spot, am I?

_Dipper's better, and he's terrible at it._

At least, I thought he was. He used to be. Before...

_All of this._

Never mind. **Moving on -**

"So Pacifica," I state. "What brings _you_ up here?" What? That wasn't confrontational, don't be a silly-billy.

She smiles, and I optimistically take it as genuine.

"Oh, you know. Just looking for a place to just _be_ for a bit, and saw this trapdoor, and was like, 'I wonder what's up there' and I came to have a look. You know, I've never actually been to the inside of the shack before, right? Just the front porch".

I look at her, shocked, and she replied to my expression; "Yep. Never been, not even once, before that ghost problem... thing."

I cocked my head to the side, questioningly. "Question. Did you ever want to?" I asked her.

For a split second, so fast Mabel thought she had imagined it, Pacifica's eyebrow was raised.

"Sure, I guess. Not that it mattered."

I felt very confused. "Why not?"

"Because." she replied, then shrugged. "That's how it is."

How can that be 'how it is'? It's not right...

Right? Things that aren't right shouldn't... _be,_ should they?

"That's not how it should be." I stated. "No." she conceded, "But it is."

How pessimistic can you get? If they didn't hate each other, she'd get along fairly well with Dip-Dop -

Wait. Why _had_ he cared to go after her before? Now that I think about it...

hmm.

I need to change the conversation.

I need a sounding board. And isn't Pacifica used to getting what she wants?

Maybe... Maybe I could. Use that. Now.

"Right about now," I started quietly, completely changing the subject.

Hopefully it wasn't out of nowhere.

I continued. "We should be able to see the stars." I looked at Pacifica, then back to the sky. "Right there..." I pointed at the 'x marks the spot' in the sky, my hand _totally_ not unsteady, "Right there would be the big... or was it little?" I never remember. Doesn't really matter anyway. "Well, it was one of the Dippers at any rate. Odd, isn't it?"

Pretty much the opposite of a happy coincidence.

"Probably just a coincidence." She replied, her tone odd and hard to place.

"Dipper doesn't believe in coincidences."

"I'm not Dipper. Neither are you."

"I know."

"So why does it matter?"

"I'm taking some... advice. Some... pointers. I'm trying to lose first place." - no-one want's that, really, _not for **this**_ \- "Get rid of my award. It's difficult though."

"What? Mabel-"

I ignored her.

"I replaced him."

Hey, don't look at me like that, I was in the middle of something and she interrupted me. No, I didn't just do the very same thing, silly.

"You did _what?_ " The most emotion I'd heard in her voice so far, was this and it was shocked disbelief.

Well...She _did_ just ask a question.

"Like I said. I replaced my bro-bro with a... more supportive, accepting version. He was also a cooler one as well. "

My reasons are my own. She... doesn't need to know how purely _selfish_ they might've been.

_**Might've.** _

Pacifica got the faintest, almost unnoticeable scowl/frown on her face for a few seconds, and that might've been the most genuine expression she's shown me tonight.

"I hope you were happy with that." She returned, quietly, staring at the giant rip in the sky _that **I caused**. _

And so they sat there in silence, a mutual agreement to just let the other _be,_ for a while.

they'd leave later, when they had sorted their heads and hearts out.

Later.

* * *

 

* * *

_(Dipper's POV - for those who wish to know.)_

_Her smile fades. "Alright dude. Lead the way."_

I do.

Currently, I'm sitting on the window seat and Wendy's using her flashlight to look round the empty room.

"There's really nothing here to look at Wendy." I said, honestly. Maybe a _little_ exasperated. And just so you know, I had looked 'round the room. Can't she just take my word for it?

_not when you've lied to her about your surroundings before - a specific cork-board -_

**_Shut_ _up._** Moving on -

It's completely empty, and nothing shows up when I use the black light so... yeah. Empty.

Wendy grunted in acknowledgement, yet continued to glare 'round the room as if daring it to reveal it's secrets.

Of which it has none. Like I said, I've checked.

Finally, after a few more minutes she gave a little humph of annoyance, came over to the window seat and flopped down on it, her back leaning against the right wall. (If you were looking at us face on.) One leg was crossed over the other, which she left to dangle of off the edge of the seat.

She looked at me, and for the I-don't-know-exactly-how-many-th-time today, she was serious.

Her eyes were distant.

"My brothers were taken. Dad... tried, I guess. Did... what he could. Given the circumstances. Which, well, wasn't enough. Obviously."

Oh god. I knew... _something,_ had had to have happened, since they're not here but...

well, to be honest, that was what I expected. Still, doesn't make it any less shocking though.

She shifted, her eyes moving from place to place, only resting on me for a few seconds at a time.

"Ford got... taken." I said, eventually. She scoffed, and looked at me again, the left corner of her lips being tugged upwards. "C'mon dude." she encouraged. "Let's spill our secrets to each other. Not gonna make anythin' worse than it is, is it?" her words were unsure yet steady, as if she had made a decision without really believing it to be true.

_can't make it worse._

_Of_ _**course** _ _it can make it worse._

I gave her a small, slightly strained grimace. "I'm sorry about your brothers. At least... At least they're not dead. Not... seeing, all this." She looked back at me, her expression part scowl part acceptance. "Yeah," She agreed, !Yeah. 'least there's that."

I took a deep breath, then let it out.

"Ford wasn't just taken." she snorted. "No, really?" I looked at her flatly. "He tried to kill Bill with a one time use gun, missed, and got turned into a golden statue/back scratcher for his efforts."

She winced.

"Yikes. That sounds horrible."

I nodded.

"It was... having to watch flesh and blood morph into gold..." My voice was distant, lost in recent memories as I was. Horrifying, terrible memories, but no _less_ memorable for it.

I don't think I'll _**ever**_ forget _._ Not _any_ of this, not if I can help it.

We don't want this to happen again.

_Ever._

"Its not a smooth transition. The skin... bubbles, and hardens, there're cracking noises from... somewhere. Everything, every little part of him was turned to gold, and it was done slowly. It was done to torture. No one else was around, he wasn't doing it to show... a _twisted_ authority, he just... _did it_. For... **_fun_** , I guess. I mean, if he's the type to throw the bodies of those he possesses down staircases, do... something to their hands and slam their arms into cutlery draws in a way that's sure to scar...and pour pitt cola into their eyes and almost drown in it... It makes horrible sense he'd just... _do that,_ for fun."

Wendy was looking at me again, her expression a mix of anger, concern, disturbance and...

curiosity.

"How'd you know he likes to do that to the people he inhabits?" She questioned, her tone carefully neutral.

_Damn it._

I sighed, again, resignedly.

"Do you _really_ need to know?" Because she always knows when I'm lying. I might as well not even try.

"No," she admitted. "But I want to know. It obviously affected _you,_ personally, an' I wanna know how."

She is my friend... I suppose she deserves to know.

 _Mabel doesn't know the true extent._ Shut up. She knows enough. I don't want to... scare her. Make her feel... guilty.

_yes you -_

**_SHUT UP._ **

I need to start talking. "Earlier in the summer... Remember that laptop we found - well, soos found - in the Bunker?" I asked, fully well knowing that those memories were... unpleasant, and awkward at best.

Disturbing and traumatizing at worst.

She seemed a little confused as to where this was going, but she nodded all the same.

"Right." I muttered. "Okay. So, ha, it turned out it needed a password - obviously. And so... well, at first Mabel promised me she'd help with figuring out the password...but she got distracted, as she always does, by this puppet guy. I, ah, promised I'd help her prepare a puppet play, that she'd said she was putting on even though she has no prior experience with puppets, _such_ an intelligent, well thought-out move on her part" Wendy let out a slightly surprised snort and chuckle "- anyway, that meant I had to split my time between figuring out a surprisingly complex form of arts and crafts, and the almost impossible task of guessing a password with a limited amount of tries before the whole laptop reset, wiping it of all memory and anything useful I could gain from it, without any personal knowledge of the person..s that set it. So, to be able to do each for a good amount of time, I - ah..." I hesitated. Wendy frowned, but nodded, encouraging me to continue. I reluctantly did so.

She was _not_ going to like this.

"I... _sortofmaybesacrificedonsleepbynotdoingsoatallexceptfromwhenIliterallypassedoutfromexhaustionforanhourorso."_ I admitted, rushing the words out.

She blinked, then concentrated on trying to figure out what I had said.

I scooted a little further away from her. Not that I could do much, my back was already pressed up against the left wall.

Her eyes lit up with realization for a split second, then glinted with something hard and...

a little upset. With me, probably.

"Dipper, you dork. Sleeping's necessary for the brain to function dude. Don't sacrifice it to help your sister or..."

"Fuel my obsession?" I questioned, wryly.

She sighed, and nodded.

"Yeah."

We shared a glance, and looked away for a bit.

I coughed, awkwardly rubbing the back of my neck. "I should probably..." I gestured. "Oh, yeah dude. Continue." she relaxed, slouching a bit further backwards into the wall.

I hope that means she's dropped it. Realistically though, she's probably just waiting for my entire explanation first, so she can say all she wants with all the information available.

"Right, okay. So, well, I guess that my not sleeping for three days -" Wendy's eyes widened and she shot me a glare for a second "- yeah, I know. Stupid. Anyway, I guess that it made it easier for Bill to... appear, I guess, because I was half between being awake and asleep, or something? Anyway he showed up and... did some weird things -" I blinked. "I actually remember that conversation weirdly well..." I frowned. She looked worriedly curious. "Verbatim?" Wendy questioned, her eyebrow raised. "Yeah..." I said absently. "Hold on a second...

Ah! yeah, okay, so it went like this...

* * *

 

* * *

( _flashback, as if that wasn't obvious.)_

_Dipper was outside, sitting at the edge of the roof, wearing a jacket rather than his customary vest, showing that it was probably colder outside than usual. It is evident he has been there for a while, judging by the seven tossed aside empty pitt cola cans, which cannot be healthy. It is also apparent he is in Wendy's chill out place, as there is the cool box there._

_Dipper looks frustrated, and as he finishes typing a word, the green light from the screen goes red, and there is (a rather irritating) error noise._

_Dipper groans, sick and tired of this already._

_"Ugh... I can't take that sound anymore!", making the universal gesture of throwing your arms up when you've had enough._

_He starts slamming his fist into the keyboard, punctuating that with a spoken word;_

_"I. Hate. You. Sound!" His voice was angry, and frustrated, the kind you can only get when giving your all to a task for **days,** but getting not a single positive result out of it._

_Yawning, Dipper continues thinking out loud, "There has to -" here, his posture becomes slouched, his eyes half-lidded "- be some shortcut or clue," he rubs his eyes. Still rubbing them, he wonders, "Who would know about secret codes?"_

_Straight after he says this, there is a mysterious wind, and dipper grabs onto his hat. The wind closes the laptop, blows leaves everywhere and moves the question mark wind-vane. Dipper looks shocked, turning his head to a sound - the creaking is just the wind-vane however, but he does not lose his suspicious-ness. He looks around, then stands up, grabbing the laptop and holding it against his side securely with one arm, turns fully to face towards the roof of the shack._

_A strange noise happens, and Dipper, still bodily facing the shack, moves his eyes to look warily from the top left of his peripheral vision._

_A line comes from the top of the moon down to the middle, and making it look like an eye looking down at Dipper in the process._

_Suddenly, a cone of bright blue-ish white light shines down upon Dipper._

_He turns his head slightly, sees the eye and lets out a shocked yell, turning his body fully and stands defensively, looking up at the eye, two hands holding onto the laptop._

_Slowly, as Dipper watches, strange blue, glowing cuboids Iwell, mostly cuboids) arrange in the shape of a triangle. There is another strange noise, and then something that resembles white lightning joining the shape, and then with a flash of bright white light, blinding Dipper for a second but he did not move,_

_" **I THINK I KNOW A GUY!"**_

_It was Bill Cipher, the dream demon, his left arm pointing upwards, his right arm pointing down, and both legs bent._

_He was also huge, but thankfully not as big as last time Dipper had seen him. It was odd, but one second he would be one size, and the next another._

_Dipper tried not to think to much about that._

_Dipper stood there in shock, mouth wide open, just staring up at the Demon._

_Dipper recovered, and took a few steps backwards, shutting his mouth quickly._

_"_ Well well well," _Cipher said, one hand on... well, his bottom right edge, and looking at the cane he was spinning in his left hand._

 _He stopped spinning the cane, putting both hands on his... corners, and continued, looking straight at Dipper now. "_ You're awfully persistent Pine Tree. Hat's off to you!"

 _Bill Cipher closes his eye, and takes off his hat. This has the consequence of spinning **the world,** and Dipper screams a bit as everything is tilted. Before he can fall off of the roof, Cipher puts his hat back on, righting the world to it's normal orientation. Dipper still falls forward, and lands hard, letting out an 'oof' of pain. He gets up, glaring at Bill. "You again!" he yells, pointing. Cipher replies. _"Did you miss me?" _He... bends his right arm, pointing it at his eye, which was... squinting at Dipper_ "Admit it, you missed me!"

_Dipper's stance is now confrontational, legs apart and one hand clenched into a fist. (the other was holding the laptop. If that were not the case, then it would be clenched as well.) "Hardly!" He is glaring at Bill. "You worked with Gideon!" He is pointing at Bill. "You tried to destroy my Uncle's mind!" He is gesturing with his free hand._

_Bill goes behind Dipper, now upside down._ "It was just a job, kid! _" His tone is amused. Dipper does not turn round, opting to clutch the laptop to his chest and look at Cipher warily from his peripheral vision. "_ No hard feelings." _his arms are spread wide. He moves his right arm to his... corner, and uses his left to point thoughtfully at his eye, which is looking up and to the right._ "I've been keeping an -" _here, the demon became massive, and Dipper instinctively turned round to keep him in his sight while Bill circled him. "_ **EYE ON YOU** **"** \- _Bill shrunk down, his hands on... the equivalent of his hips. -"_ Since then." _Dipper leans away from Cipher, still clutching the laptop to his chest. Bill moves away. "_ And I must say, I'm impressed."

_Dipper is mistrustful, questioning, one eyebrow raised, but his tone gives away his mixture of disbelief..._

_and curiosity._

_"Really?" he questioned._

_"_ You deserve a prize," _Cipher is tapping his bow-tie thoughtfully with his left arm, his one eye looking up to the left. He continues, moving his arms to clap them together. "_ Here, have a head that's always screaming." _his tone was calm, as if that was something normal to offer a person, and he then claps his hands together._

_Next to his hands, the screaming head of a ghostly man appears, and slams down on the roof next to Dipper. Shocked, he leans away slightly. After a few seconds, it registers, and he yelps, leaning away even further._

_Bill moves down, and disposes of the head in the most horrific way possible; by taking it apart, layer by layer. First hair was removed, then the skin was peeled off in chunks, then anything not apart of the skeleton except for the eyes, and then the head was dissolved in a blue light, the screams of the head fading into the distance, as a short, strange laugh took it's place._

_Throughout the whole ordeal, Dipper was silent, and he still was now, just staring worriedly up to where the head had been (it had risen up as it was destroyed), his mouth open slightly._

_Cipher started talking, and Dipper returned to glaring at him._

"The point is I like you." _Cipher said, pointing at dipper, his arm bent strangely. His eye was half-lidded as he stretched his arm up and around to poke Dipper in the back, forcing him to take a few steps towards Bill._ _Dipper watched this happen, and stayed silent, suspicious. "_ How's about you let me give you a _hint_ huh?" _his eye squinted for a second, then went back to it's normal, wide open state. He returned his arm's length back to normal as well. Still... leaning against the edge of the roof, he continued, flourishing his arm as he did so. "_ I only ask for a small..." _The demon closed it's eye. " **Favour,"**_ _He opened his eye, glowing blue, as he set his hand alight. He returned them both to normal, and went on as if that hadn't happened. "_ In return?" _He was looking at Dipper, his eye half-lidded as he waited for a response._

 _Dipper was angry now, gesturing angrily with his free hand, jabbing it in Cipher's direction. "I'd **never** do a favour for you! Don't forget who defeated you last time!" he was looking down now, pointing down, as Bill snuck up behind him. _"Right, you-" _Dipper instinctively clutched the laptop to his chest again, his expression a mix of (mostly) shock and (a little bit of) fear. "'defeated'_ me." _the demon was looking up and to the right, his arms behind his back. Dipper leant away from him, his feet dangerously close to the edge, which went un-noticed, his mouth open in shock still. Bill put air quotes around 'defeated'. "_ Well, if you ever change your _mind -"_ _and here, he reached his hands inside Dipper's head, and removed a glowing blue, magic made image of a brain. He then put one arm - his left - around Dipper's shoulders, and grabbed onto the laptop, and poked him in the arm a couple times as he said, "_ Ready to make"- _and here, he moved back from Dipper, who again leant away from him, even more precariously on the edge than last time, as Bill Cipher turned his bow-tie into a image of three pine-trees in a row, like you see in casinos -_ " a deal!" _The last word was musical, almost sung in the way it was elongated, teasingly. Abruptly, he said "_ Hey, wanna hear my impression of you in about three seconds?" _he screamed in that unnaturally high-pitched voice of his, as he widened his eye and flailed his arms up and down, like a wave. Not a greeting wave though. The other type._

_The world faded out of monochrome, which it had been and I totally did not forget to mention that shh- and Dipper did exactly what Bill Cipher had done, noodle arms probably helping in the fact that it was possible at all for him to do so._

_His scream was a normal pitch for his age though, thankfully._

_He looked around suspicious, before closing the laptop and narrowing his eyes... suspiciously._

_(man, I need to find more adjectives for that.)_

* * *

 

* * *

_(Wendy POV)_

I couldn't believe what I was hearing him tell me.

Well, that's a lie. I could, but I didn't really want to.

Because it would mean that Dipper was, _is_ in a **lot** more danger than most of the rest of us.

_A lot._

An as his best friend and in general just a person that cares about the dork?

I obviously don't want that.

Obviously.

But I'll wait 'til he's finished the whole story first. Generally, you get a lot less embarrassed by stupid questions the other is about to answer, and you get a lot more of a cohesive story.

So I'll freak when he's finished.

"So yeah." he said, not looking me in the eye. "He showed up, and tried to convince me to be indebted to him... which I wish I'd stayed certain I would never do... but it's over now I guess. Moving on to what happened next. I, uh, came down to the kitchen a small bit later than usual, 'cause I maybe _passedoutalittle_ when I got to our bedroom to put the laptop away, as I was going to help again that day with the puppets; as I'd promised her I would." I frowned a little, but he didn't seem to notice, lost in memories as he was.

_He sacrifices too much for her._

Stan made a joke, and Mabel got all concerned and stuff... and tried to offer me Mabel juice." We both shuddered.

At least she tried.

I, ah, took her into the hallway and told her about... what happened"

He's obviously having to make a conscious effort _not_ to say His name.

...Odd.

Rather ironically, I said something along the lines of not ever making a deal with him... yeah, no that did end up happening." Well shit. "Anyway, Mabel promised that 'today would be the day...'."He paused, a small, confused frown spreading across his face. "Odd, I swear I didn't remember this this well just yesterday..." That is odd. "Yeah dude. Bit strange." Kind of a... weird coincidence, but convenient all the same. "I'll just... continue from here like I did last time, then." He said it like a statement, but I knew he wanted to know whether or not I'd processed everything he just threw at me, and that I wanted him to describe it like he had before.

I can always ask for clarification later. And it's easier for him to describe it that way, anyway.

I nodded.

He took a breath, and looked me in the eye again.

"Right. so what happened next was..."

* * *

 

* * *

( _flashback #No.2)._ ;: _the flashback of the ages. I also cannot be bothered to write alll of this in italics, goddamnit. Pretend it is.)_

_Ugh, again? Okay, whatever, narrator is ready to go._

_Right, so, here we go..._

Mabel and Dipper were standing in the hall outside of the kitchen. Dipper looked amused at something, but the bags that were perpetually under his eyes were ridiculously prominent that day. Mabel seemed to respond to something he'd said, and his expression turned slightly mistrustful, losing the raised eyebrow and small, amused smile, turning the arms crossed stance into something defensive. He was also frowning. Mabel was grinning in that perpetually smiling way of her's, pointing finger gun's at her brother. "Don't worry bro," She started gesturing _and I can't be bothered to describe that so whatever,_ "Today is the day that the mystery twins are back in action! I'll help you crack that code." Her expression changed _(read: I'm to lazy and tired right now to be more specific, sorry. You've all seen this anyway.)_ "I just gotta hand off my puppet stuff to my production crew." Dipper had lost his defensive stance, trusting that she was telling the truth and this promise wasn't empty, his stance now just showing off his tiredness, slouched as it was. His tone was questioning. "Production crew?"

_now they're outside the shack. Candy and Grenda are here as well as Dipper and Mabel, the two girls holding a box each of puppet stuff, with odd bits and pieces stuck to their heads. Mabel had a list in her hands, and Dipper just looked bored-ly tired. Wendy and soos were also there, trying to tie some stuff down onto the 'Stanley-mobile'. Candy started talking._

"We read the script. Very emotional." she stated, her English accented and slightly stilted. Grenda started talking, her gruff voice making it seem like she was yelling slightly; "I cried, like, _eight_ times!" "hey ladies!"

_the voice that just said that last line belongs to 'puppet-crazy Gabe' Everyone turned to look at him as he arived, He skated towards them and leant against a post._

"Gabe!" Mabel shouted, excited to see him.

_sometime between the last sce- ahem, sorry, sometime since they left the house Dipper found time to make it look like he hadn't just been up for three days straight with only pitt cola to sustain him. Bravo, my man. Still looks tired though. Grenda looks oddly... sadly surprised, and Candy looks shocked._

Gabe started talking. "I was just bladein' by, helps me to dry out my ponytail after a shower."

He took off his purple helmet and shook his head. Making weird noises, as you do.

_question; does he keep his ponytail in in the shower? Answer: I. don't. know._

_Vindictively, I will compare the child to a wet dog._

_Moving on._

Grenda said something along the lines of "hubbidy-bubbedy" but those aren't words so whatever, and Candy said, In - er- another language, no less, "I must steal him away from Mabel."

_and no, before you ask, it was not totally creepy. Nope._

_(read: it totally was and she scares me)_

_"_ It's so great to see you!" Mabel exclaimed, as she ran towards him. "I was just working on the worlds greatest Puppet Show. It has puppets!" She was yelling now, excitedly. "Your passion is so refreshing Mabel." He replied, happily. His tone then turned scornful, as Mabel started to look worried. "Unlike the girl from last night. Single stitch on one puppet, cross stitch on the other?" He looked disgusted, and Mabel looked fairly worried now. "I was like, uh-uh." Mabel was looking very worried. "cross-huh?" she was also a bit confused. Gabe continued, oblivious. "Naturally, I deleted her off of my cell phone contacts list." He looked away, as Mabel put on false happy agreement. "Naturally!" she half-false-laughed, her eyebrows giving away her worried-ness. She laughed nervously. Dipper looked a mixture of worried, sad and concerned.

As if he knew this meant her promise was null and void.

"I know you won't let me down though. Based on what you've said the other day, you must be a puppet expert."

Grenda said something mildly disturbing, everyone ignores her.

Gabe says "Later ladies" obviously completely ignoring Dipper's existence, which he's probably perfectly happy with, and then Gabe skates off.

Mabel yells in terror, and starts directing everyone, forgetting all about her promises to help Dipper with the laptop.

"We've gotta step up our game, girls!" she yells, "Did you hear that thing he said about the stitches?" she was gesturing wildly now.

Her friends offer condolences, one not very helpful as Grenda tears the arms off of her own puppet, "oops", and Candy's is... disturbing and won't be mentioned.

Soos gets crushed, people ignore it.

Mabel yelps. "Okay, I'm back on fabrication," she says, seriously. "now get me my lynch (?) roller-" Dipper stops and interrupts her, sounding a little angry and a little hurt. "Woah, hey. You _just said_ you were going to help me-" Mabel interrupts, angrily yelling at her brother, _who had done nothing wrong I might add._ " _Dipper!"_ She yelled, "This sock crisis just bumped up to a code argyle. The laptop can wait." Dipper protests, angrily retaliating "Mabel, do you _seriously_ think your random crush of the week is more important than uncovering the mysteries of this town? You're obsessed!" He finally starts yelling, on the last part of that sentence. Mabel is full-out glaring at him now. " _I'm_ obsessed?" she questions, incredulous. "Look at _you!_ You look like a vampire! And _not_ the hot kind!" Dipper rubs his eyes, and his tone is upset in that defensive way when someone breaks a promise. "But you said you were gonna help me today." Mabel randomly does this next thing. She says this with a ridiculous voice. "Well I can help you." the next part is more Mabel like. She exclaims it. "With tickles!" She tickles him, and he starts unwillingly laughing, whilst Candy and Grenda laugh. (unsure what at, or whether it is with or at Dipper and/or Mabel.) Dipper has enough of that and punches Mabel, hard, in the hand. Whilst they angrily glare at each other. Everyone stops laughing abruptly, and Mabel looks shocked, as Dipper finally breaks and yells "Okay fine! You know what, I'll do it on my own." he starts storming off, Mabel's expression stumped. Grenda is weirdly smiling, and Candy is... holding onto her chin, for some reason.

* * *

 

* * *

(Dipper POV)

I'm not really sure how I'm remembering this so well. And the 'memories' all seem to be in third person, which is odd.

I'm not gonna question this though, it makes the whole telling Wendy thing a lot more convenient.

I guess...

Oh well. Might as well move on to the next bit.

I open my mouth to speak, but Wendy beats me to it. She's looking at the painted over window as she says this. "So let me get this straight. Mabel promised you, _twice,_ that she'd help, and both times blew you off to go do some... weird puppet thing. In other words, she blew you off to go do something she deemed more interesting and important and worth her 'laser focus' than whatever she promised to her brother. And if you protest, she just... dodges it, by doing something random. And, let me guess, you usually drop what you wanted to do to help her?"

_That's not how it works._

_...Right?_

My eyes are strained and smile insincere as I look at her.

_I'm lying to_ _the both of us_ _her, I'm lying to **her.**_

"No," I lied through my teeth. "Not always. She helps me if I need it."

she scoffed, her tone...

bitter?

"Of course. Do nothing but defend her. Go, on. Say she's all sunshine and rainbows. 'Cause that's what she is, right? To you."

Her expression was annoyed, and...

angry, a little bit. Just a little.

_angry at what, though?_

I roll my eyes, ignoring the tone of voice and pretending I didn't hear it.

"She's not all 'sunshine and rainbows'. No human can be... but she _is_ a good person." I mumble the next bit.

I actually didn't even mean to say it, it just... slipped out.

"Better than me, at any rate."

...

Wendy stared at me, straight at me, and didn't say anything.

_This is starting to get uncomfortable..._

I shifted in my seat, and coughed, awkwardly, rubbing my arm.

I flicked my eyes in her direction. "any... ah, anyway you could-um, pretend I didn't say that untill I finish telling you everything?"

She pursed her lips, but nodded despite not liking that solution.

We don't have forever. I need to get on with this.

* * *

* * *

(flashback 3 - return of the flashback.)

_Yo guys. It's me again! The third person narrator._

_No, I'm not the author. Jesus. Remove that from your minds._

_Right okay. Let us get started._

_Dipper was sitting on the very same window seat as he was in the present, but the window was not painted over so the room wasn't pitch black. It was also slightly open, letting some not-red light into the room. The window was stained glass, red, and displayed a picture of a triangle with an eye in it. Moving on from the window, you could see wires hanging down from the roof and one - probably not working - light bulb. There were a couple boxes, but the junk in them wasn't all that interesting or worth mentioning. A couple random pits of paper were thrown onto the floor next to the ladder out._

_Yes, I know it isn't a ladder, but story continuity guys. Continuity. I'm helping the author here._

Dipper was sitting cross-legged on the window seat, the laptop in front of him.

He was typing and mumbling to himself, to tired to put much of any emotion into his voice.

"Passwords, passwords," - he punctuated the next words with a press of a button, that made _the noise_ happen. -"Mabel. Is. Useless." He yawned. "Oh, man." out of nowhere, a mechanical voice starts talking. "Too many failed entries." it said, as dipper, surprised, goes "huh?" and leans backwards. "Initiate data erase in five minutes." a timer appears on the screen, and starts counting down. Each second, removed from the clock is punctuated with a beep.

Dipper is kneeling forwards, and throws his hands up, desperate, his voice laced with said desperation. "No. nonono-" he grabs the sides of the laptop, and shakes his head, letting go, he exclaims, "I'm gonna lose _everything!"_ he grabs the sides of his hat. "I only have _one more try!"_

_a strange noise fills the room, as it fades into monochrome, starting from the window. Intelligently, Dipper gets off of the seat, and leans away from Bill, who appears in that same instant. Cipher's legs are crossed, and both arms are held up, with blue fire above them. His eye is closed._

_"Well well well."_ He moves forward, extinguishing the fire, and looks to dipper. _"Someone's looking desperate!"_ He moves away from Dipper, his eye half-lidded, his eyes behind his back and his legs uncrossed, facing away from Dipper.

Dipper gets out of his momentary shock from the demon's sudden entrance. "I thought I told you to leave me alone!" His stance angry, as he points at Cipher for a second. Both arms are now by his sides, hands clenched into fists, eyes narrowed in a glare. Bill spins round and says, _"I can help you kid. You just need to hear out my demands!"_ He summons his cane out of nowhere, and holds it with both arms. His eye is no longer half-lidded.

The beeping starts again.

Hesitant, Dipper starts, "I- ah-" but then angrily yells, "What crazy thing do you want, anyway!" He starts gesturing, his tone questioning loosing it's angry edge slightly. "To eat my soul? To rip out my teeth? Are you gonna replace my eyes with baby heads or something?" Bill holds both hands out in what is supposedly supposed to be a calming gesture, his tone amused. _"Yeesh kid, relax_." he throws his arms up. _"All I want is a puppet!_ " Dipper is confused, a questioning, confused tone infused in his next words. "A puppet?" he becomes suspicious, his eyes narrowing as he places his hands on his hips. "What are you playing at?" Bill is gesturing. "Everyone loves puppets." He uses his power to highlight some boxes of puppets that _were out of view before,_ as he angles his body sideways, both hands on his corners and eye half lidded. "And it seems to me you've got a surplus." Dipper's tone is hesitant. "I...I don't know man. Mabel worked... _really_ hard on these." Bill is facing away from Dipper again, playing with one of the puppets. " _Seems to me one puppet is a small price to pay to learn all the secrets of the universe."_ Cipher's voice echoes on the last word, as he throws his arms up and a (possibly live) picture of 'the universe' is displayed on him, as his arms are thrown up. He moves over to Dipper, and says, nonchalantly, _"Besides, what has your sister done for you lately?"_ here, a screen playing moments when he gave things up for his sister appears instead of Bill's bow-tie. Dipper turns bodily away, but can't help but think about that. As nothing immediately springs to mind, he looks upset. Bill gets bigger, and continues. " _how many times have you sacrificed for her, huh?"_ his voice becomes echo-y, as Dipper can't help but look" _And when has **she**_ _ever returned the **favour?...**_ " Cipher stays silent, as Dipper looks outside to his sister and her friends, And then to the laptop, which starts beeping again. There are thirty seconds left on the clock. Bill replaces his eye with a ticking clock, and throws his hand out. " _Tick tock, kid."_ His left arm is on his corner, and he lights his right hand on fire. Dipper is unsure, but desperate and as a result sees no other choice. "Ah - just one puppet?" He yells. "Fine!"

Dipper reaches out, and shakes the Dream Demon's hand.

_Oh no._

Dipper is questioning. "So... what puppet are you gonna pick, anyway?" They've stopped shaking hands. Bill pretends to think. " _Hmm.. lets see. Enie, menie,_ minene... **Y _OU._** " His eye turns red on the last word.

"What!" Dipper exclaims, and his soul is pulled from his body.

_shit._

* * *

 

* * *

(Wendy POV - back to the lumberjack princess.)

Shit. Fuck. Goddamnit. Jesus. Fucking fuckton. Shit.

_Fuck._

Dipperis now standing, facing away from me, glaring at the opposite wall. I, however, am sitting down, my back to the window of evil.

I get up. Fuck that window.

I walk over to Dipper, who stopped talking when he got to _that_ part, when his soul was forcibly _ripped_ from his body.

Shit.

In an effort to try to comfort, I place my hand on his shoulder.

_He's shaking._

I would be too, if I had to retell all of this.

_I never knew. How did I not know! I saw him that day! I am the worst friend!_

The worst friend of the year award goes to me, the idiot lumberjack who couldn't even tell when her friend wasn't her friend, even when he calls you red and asks soos if he wants to know the exact time and date of his death.

He'd acted perfectly normal other than that though. Just a bit quiet. Stared out the window, facial expression passive...

And he reacted to things the exact same way Dipper would.

Except for the Red thing. And the death thing.

Hey, wait - were those times when...

_shit. shit shit shit fuck shit._

_Dipper was there when none of us noticed anything wrong._

**_Fuck._ **

He'd jumped, a little, when I placed my hand on his shoulder.

And he stiffened now when I hugged him out of nowhere.

"I'm sorry. I'm so _so, so **sorry."**_ I mumbled against his head.

_I'm sorry Dipper._

_So very sorry._

His voice was muffled, confused. "What? Wendy - you don't need to be sorry for anything."

"But I do, dork. We didn't - _I_ didn't notice it wasn't you."

we stood there in silence for a second.

"He probably made it so you wouldn't. I... was in the mindscape. He... was probably just messing with me."

His tone was uncertain, and I agreed with that.

the demon wasn't just messing with him.

_he wanted to break him._

_..._

_Break him like he broke Ford. Since Ford is the author..._

**_I'm not gonna let that happen to my friend._ **

"You're fine now. At least, as fine as anyone can be in this situation."

I paused, and leaned back, looking him in the eye.

"And if he wants to hurt my _best friend_ again, he's gonna have to go through a lot more people than he remembers. Including me."

He smiled a little, embarrassed.

"Thanks Wendy."

"No problem."

* * *

 

 


	6. Chapter 6: A Gaggle Of Girls, Like, Totally.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I decided to leave the roof, leave Pacifica to her own devices.  
> I need some actual support right now.

**Mabel POV.**

So since I was getting a little bored - _goingasmallamountcrazy-_ sitting in silence on the roof, looking at the sky, I decided to go back inside the shack and find my friends.

I convinced them to leave their posts (It's not like that's really a problem, right? Nah, _pssh,_ It'll be _fine._ Dip won't be mad or anything.) and that is where we are now, sitting in me an' my bro's bedroom, chatting quietly.

Chatting about nothing - stuff we'd be chatting about on any normal day, not that this is really any different.

 _yeah. Tell yourself that. Totally true -_ What? _Pssh,_ No, everything isn't all that bad considering.

No-one's dead.

...Right?

...

_Anyway._

Moving on.

So yeah, we're having a pretty normal, if quiet - well, as quiet as Grenda can be - conversation, about -

Well, about boys, and summer and how _great everything is right now._

Yeah.

... Great.

Let's see... how to start serious conversations...

"Girls, girls. This is great an' all, but for a sec - let's be serial. Let's get our serious-ness started. Let's talk about..." I faltered.

And I was doing so well...

Candy piped up. "You were missing, were you not? Tell us." Grenda chimed in. "Yeah, Mabel! Girls we've gotta share our problems, like, totally!"

Well. They aren't wrong.

"Right. Well, After... after I came to invite you guys and you couldn't come... wait, let's back-track. So, it was morning, and I woke dip-dop up the way I used to when we were little - Like a one last time thing, you know? So yeah, and then we got all exited for our 13th birthday, and... and then stuff went down hill from there. Dip got called in to another room by great uncle Ford, because and I quote his 'face is on fire!' "the girls giggled. "For such a smart guy that was pretty silly, right girls?" they nodded, Grenda more... uh... enthusiastic than Candy. "Yeah, totally!" "It is humorous." "I _know,_ right? Any way, Dipper and Ford had to go do some saving the world thing, like usual - and as the great sister I am I let Dipper go do that rather than plan for our party. Which was cool of me, 'cause I didn't get mad, or anything. I was totally chill. Uh - next, some planning stuff for the party went... not great, as you girls know -" They interrupted, speaking over each other. "If I could come I would Mabel. I am sorry." "I'm sorry girl, but you know how it is. Relationships, demanding."I offered a small smile. "Girls, It's okay. No harm meant. So yeah, planning went badly, so I went back to the shack and looked at some scrapbook pics, and Grunkle Stan comforted me... okay, then I went back to looking at pictures -"Totally _not_ feeling sorry for myself, nu-uh."-and then... then I overheard Dipper promise Ford he'd stay in Gravity Falls. With him. Leaving... leaving me behind." They immediately gave me reassurance, which is much better than questions I can't _won't_ answer. "Yeah. Anyway, I reacted as any normal person would do in that situation, and -ah- went into the woods, and sat there for a bit. I realized I'd brought the wrong bag - It had this weird sphere thing in it, still don't know what that was - and then this guy, Blendin Blandin showed up. I know, name's kinda silly, but it's future-y so you know. Sci-fi name an' stuff. He offered me a deal - In return for the sphere thing, he'd..."I took a breath.

No turning back now.

_No more denial... Okay, that's a lie. But at least I'll stop denying this._

"He'd make summer last _forever._ It'd never end. And, well, it didn't seem like much of a price, you know, so I took his offer - and I realized my mistake too little too late. Blendin Blandin was posessed by Bill - The evil triangle guy-" They nodded in understanding, looking warily at the window in our bedroom and the cork-board above Dipper's bed. ( _I don't)_ Wonder why they did that. Ahem, anyway -

"So... I tried to backtrack, but it was no use. Next thing I know, I'm in this little empty white space - and I think, 'this place could use some color' and - bam, right there, color appeared. So, continuing with this idea, _I_ made a place where summer never ends, where - where... where people _listen_ to me, they - they return my affections - they, they - they -" I swallowed.

Now or never.

_Preferably never but I'm committed now so -_

_"_ They act how I want them to. Have the personalities I want them to. they -

_They're who I wish they were."_

The room is silent now, as I wait for them to answer. Timidly, Candy starts. "So... this 'they' is your idea of improvement of this human being? A better them?"

I laughed.

 _no,_ It wasn't bitter. Why'd you think that.

... What, you weren't? oh -

Right then. Ignore what I just said.

"Yeah, Can. A - a better... them. A... _fresh_ them, so to speak."

It's not like they'll get what I'm saying.

Candy shrugged. "I do not see a problem with this. If 'they' are not right, fix 'them'."

um.

Okay.

Grenda looked slightly concernedly out of the corner of her eye at Candy, but it happened so quick I must 've imagined it.

_must've._

"Yeah, Mabel. If they aren't like, totally how you think they should be then it's fine, right?! Like, I read that in Wolf man bare chest novel 46 - which came out this week! Pretty cool, huh!" Grenda tried to change the topic. "Totally," I agreed. "Yes. I would- _we_ would very much like to read that. Later, now we talk." Oh Candy. Let the topic change, would ya? Grenda looked put-out. "Yeah, okay then!"

She wasn't happy. She just yells everything in her beautiful voice.

...Yeah.

Right.

"So a... well, some time later, Dipping sauce, Wendy and soos break in to my tower, and try to convince me to leave. Why would I? It was great there. Everything you could ever want, at the tip of your fingertips. So I said no. The other's went off to do some stuff with their wants - Dipper seemed... less than okay but not-"oh, he _totally was, stop lying to yourself,"-_ unhappy or angry, which was great... Because he was the 'they' I referred to earlier. I replaced him with - with Dippy Fresh - who was pretty cool and hella supportive. Like, so much more than my bro-bro and so much less likely to leave me. So yeah. I - ah. I did that."

Grenda frowned for a second, but then it was gone.

Must 've imagined it.

Candy still had that perpetual smile on her face. "Yes. Your brother needs bettering. At least, a little."

...right.

okay.

Cool!

"Yeah, he - ah- he was-" _not_ "-okay with that. he probably would-" _not_ "-have done the same thing. So yeah. er - stuff happened, and we all finally left, and then we made our way here. After almost attaking one another, I - ah, I snuck off, after Dipper had gone after pacifica-" "Ugh, _pacifica"_ Oh Grenda... "-yeah, after he went after her, I went up to the roof and sat for a while. Wendy showed up, talked for a bit - " _was angry with me when she arrived and angrier when she left "-_ then I was alone again, and then Pacifica showed up, we sat for a bit and then I left, found you guys, and here we are."

Right. Now for reactions.

"Yeah, that happened just now!"

...great Grenda. Nice input!

what, i'm being serious!

"I see that you have done nothing bad." Candy added. "Were we supposed to see that you had done something bad?"

slowly, a big grin spread across my face.

"No. Not at _all."_


	7. Chapter 7: The finishing of the horror tale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> there's a narrator in this?? For some reason???
> 
> I have no idea, trust me.

(previously, in Later, chapter i-can't-be-bothered-to-check-)

_(Wendy POV - back to the lumberjack princess.)_

_Shit. Fuck. Goddamnit. Jesus. Fucking fuckton. Shit._

_Fuck._

_Dipperis now standing, facing away from me, glaring at the opposite wall. I, however, am sitting down, my back to the window of evil._

_I get up. Fuck that window._

_I walk over to Dipper, who stopped talking when he got to that part, when his soul was forcibly ripped from his body._

_Shit._

_In an effort to try to comfort, I place my hand on his shoulder._

_He's shaking._

_I would be too, if I had to retell all of this._

_I never knew. How did I not know! I saw him that day! I am the worst friend!_

_The worst friend of the year award goes to me, the idiot lumberjack who couldn't even tell when her friend wasn't her friend, even when he calls you red and asks soos if he wants to know the exact time and date of his death._

_He'd acted perfectly normal other than that though. Just a bit quiet. Stared out the window, facial expression passive..._

_And he reacted to things the exact same way Dipper would._

_Except for the Red thing. And the death thing._

_Hey, wait - were those times when..._

_shit. shit shit shit fuck shit._

_Dipper was there when none of us noticed anything wrong._

_**Fuck.** _

_He'd jumped, a little, when I placed my hand on his shoulder._

_And he stiffened now when I hugged him out of nowhere._

_"I'm sorry. I'm so so, so_ _**sorry."** _ _I mumbled against his head._

_I'm sorry Dipper._

_So very sorry._

_His voice was muffled, confused. "What? Wendy - you don't need to be sorry for anything."_

_"But I do, dork. We didn't - I didn't notice it wasn't you."_

_we stood there in silence for a second._

_"He probably made it so you wouldn't. I... was in the mindscape. He... was probably just messing with me."_

_His tone was uncertain, and I agreed with that._

_the demon wasn't just messing with him._

_he wanted to break him._

_..._

_Break him like he broke Ford. Since Ford is the author..._

_**I'm not gonna let that happen to my friend.** _

_"You're fine now. At least, as fine as anyone can be in this situation."_

_I paused, and leaned back, looking him in the eye._

_"And if he wants to hurt my best friend again, he's gonna have to go through a lot more people than he remembers. Including me."_

_He smiled a little, embarrassed._

_"Thanks Wendy."_

_"No problem."_

* * *

_(Dipper pov)_

We stayed like that for a little while, but i soon figured it'd be best to continue telling this...

horror tale.

...

Right.

Let's go.

"Wendy..." I hesitated. She leaned back, a questioning look on her face. I continued. "I - uh. We should, probably - ah - continue. With the retelling Now." It was her turn to hesitate, but she sighed and conceded, nodding, leading the way back to the window seat. "Alright." she said. "But sit next to me."

I stood there for a second longer, then took a deep breath and did so.

"Alright. so, ah, recap - he tore my soul from my body. Now, what happened next..."

* * *

OHDEAR. It's the return of the dreaded -

* * *

( _flashback)_

_Sup. Narrator here._

_... no, I'm not the author, why do you keep on thinking that?_

_God._

_Anyway - Last we saw, Dip-Dop was having his soul forcibly removed from his body, which really should have had some lasting effects but whatever -_

_Lets roll._

* * *

_Dipper is forcibly removed from his body, which collapses to the floor. Dipper is now a blue spirit, much like the ghosts from an - from earlier on in the summer. (saved it.)_

_ahem. Dipper is now quite understandably freaked out._

"Ahh! This can't be happening! _What did you do to my body!"_ he is putting his arms through his ghostly form, terrified.

The previously motionless body of Dipper which had collapsed now started to move, standing up and was incredibly creepy just for the fact that Dipper wasn't home.

His eyes opened, and they were bright yellow with vertical lines for the pupils, and no irises. Yelling, Cipher used Dipper's arms to lift up the laptop, whilst laughing and saying, "Sorry, kid. But you're my puppet now! Ahaha!" and he threw down the laptop and crushed it underfoot, laughing the whole time.

Dipper is in denial. "Oh my gosh. This can't be happening." Still he kept his eyes on Bill-in-his-body, watching him to see what nefarious thing he'd do next.

Bill crept over to the middle of the room in a... strange way, and then, laughing weirdly, unsteady on his feet as he wasn't used to it, he made his way to a mirror _which we also couldn't see before-_ and then placed his hands on his hips. "Man, it has been so long since I've inhabited a body." he slapped himself, hard, in Dipper's face, and... "whoo!"-ed, for lack of a better term.

He slapped hard enough to leave a bright red hand print on his cheek. And he did it twice.

Dipper was floating, shocked into silence, just watching events unfold.

"Pain is hilarious!" Bill-Dipper said, "And two eyes? This thing's deluxe!" he grabbed his upper eyelids and his lower lip, and with an "Eh" he stretched them, with a sickening sound.

Dipper was looking at his hands. "I don't understand," then he yelled, throwing his arms apart. "Why are you doing this?!" His eyebrows showed how worried he was. "I thought we had a deal." Bill was gesturing. "Look kid. You've been getting way too close to figuring out some major answers. I've got big plans coming and I don't need you getting in my way. Destroying that laptop was a cinch. Now I just need to destroy your journal!" He moved over to the _ladder it is a ladder nope ha it is not but helping the author here -_ "Race you to the bottom of the ladder!" and then he dropped backwards down the hole in the floor where the ladder was. "And the stairs!" he yelled, and, doing much the same thing, dropped himself backwards down the stairs, to the ground floor, with a disconcerting smile on his face the whole time.

Dipper gasped, then (extremely quickly) followed, by going through the floor. He got the hang of it within seconds, and then chased after Bill-Dipper. "Hey!" he yelled. going into the kitchen.

Bill was already there, and dipper watched in abject horror as he did what he did next.

"Human soda." he opened it." I'm gonna drink it like a person!" he started by tipping his head back, and pouring it into his mouth, which was okay, but then he started laughing and probably breathing in the soda, a gurgling sound coming out of his throat, and then made to, and did, pour it in his eyeballs. He moved over to Dipper, who was floating next to the cutlery draw, and merrily started slamming his - Dipper's - arm inside of it. "So where do you keep that journal anyway?" His left eye was twitching from slamming his arm in the draw but he seemed oblivious. "It's gotta be around here somewhere." offhandedly, he continued. "Boy these arms are durable." He took his arm out, which was impaled with forks, and put it to his chin whilst holding the elbow with the other hand, a smirk on his face and one eyebrow raised, as Dipper moved forward, jabbing his ghostly finger at him. "I've hidden it! Somewhere you'll never find it in a million years!" Dipper was angrily glaring at Bill. Mabel ran to the door and yelled into the room, not noticing that her supposed brother was talking to midair...

Or that he had forks in his arms but whatever people don't notice that sort of thing apparently.

"Hey Dipper!" she started with a rush, and then sped out the next words - "Iborrowedyourjournaltouseasapropintheshowihopeyoudon'tmindi'mgonnagobeforeyouprocessthisscentenceokay- bye!" and then ran off. Bill grinned maliciously up at Dipper, and Dipper looked worriedly at Bill. Bill took his arm out of the draw and called after her. ( _we - me and the author - assume she didn't hear this sentence-)_ "Sure! Sounds great, _sister,_ I'll see you at the show!" Dipper, scared yelled - unable to be heard - "Wait - no, Mable don't listen to him; _that's not me!"_ and chased after them.

_Bill had jogged off, just so you know. Should'a mentioned that... heh._

Mabel got into Grunkle Stan's car, and was oblivious to Dipper - as he wasn't able to be seen or heard.

...but was able to be sensed, apparently.

\- Anyway, oblivious to him floating in front of the car and yelling, arms waving: "No no - Wait - _Stop!"_ and then curling in on himself when the car drove right at him, his voice echoing on the last word.

He stares after the car, mouth open slightly. Bill walks up to him, hands on hips then does some gesturing. "Hah! Welcome to the mindscape, _kid._ Without a vessel to posses you're basically a ghost."

_Soos and Wendy show up from - apparently - inside the shack. Could'a sworn they weren't there before but who knows with that house._

"Oh - hey, there you are Dipper." Soos greets, mistaking Bill for Dipper - unable to see Dipper and that Bill's eyes are any different from the norm.

apparently to do that you need to invade their personal space and have a torch handy, or something.

"What up, dude!" Wendy greets. "Soos - Wendy - Help me!" dipper shouts, his voice echoing, and dives through soos.

He looks back via his peripheral vision, as they talk to Bill as if it were him, completely unaware and unable to tell that it wasn't.

"let's head to the theater." Soos said. Wendy seemed to notice something was off, her voice concerned, but didn't say anything - seemingly brushing it off. "need a ride Dipper?" "O-ho, anything for you, _red."_ And they all got in the car. Bill-Dipper was being creepy as per usual, and Dipper went up to the window. "I'm gonna stop you Bill. I'm gonna find that journal before you do and I'm gonna stop you!" Creepily, Bill started talking, not looking at Dipper. "But how can you stop me..." Slowly, drawing out the syllables to match the pace of his head turning, creepily slowly. " _If you don't_ _ **exist?**_ **"** Grinning up at dipper he starts laughing manically as the window gets rolled up. Once It's up, we get a glimpse at what the other's are seeing - Dipper just looking out the window, doing nothing out of the ordinary, if a little quiet. His expression was vacant, and his eyes normal. Dipper, horrified, gasps, and turns to watch the car go, as Bill's laugh continues menacingly, fading off into the distance. We see Dipper stare after it, a saddened, look on his face, whilst the wind blows leaves through him.

timeywimeywibblywobblystuffishappeningandwereturntothepresentday-

(Wendy POV. that really should be P.O.V. But who cares.)

Oh god.

It's even _worse,_ even more stupidly obvious -

how did we not see that the was something at least... off, about his behavior? Like...

_I was so_ _**stupid.** _

...

He's stopped talking now, and is just staring into the middle distance with what I assume to be the same expression on his face as he'd had when he stared after the car.

to me...

_it looks a little like defeat._

...But no.

_No._

**_not this time._ **

"Hey" I start, quietly, tapping his shoulder. "You okay, dude?"

Well no, of course he's not why did I -

never mind. Can't take it back now.

The corner of his lip quirked up for a second.

"Me? Oh, I'm doing _great._ " he sighed. "It's just -" he looked frustrated. "I was acting kinda stupid, really."

no, not stupid. He wasn't acting stupid. Just...

_scared._

"You weren't acting _stupid,_ Dipper. You - you were scared, and you had every right to be. Stuck in the mindscape as you were - "

He interrupted me.

"Yeah. Right. Let the evil guy know his tactics are working - that always helps."

I winced. Okay, he was right to be scared - it would be ridiculous to expect him not to be -

... but he could have hid it better.

Hindsight is 20-20, I guess.

"Yeah, okay, I'll give you that - But, if it gives you any consolation I probably would have done worse."

He laughed a little.

It was bitter.

"You wouldn't have been stupid enough to take the deal In the first place. I could have just turned off the laptop; restarted it, probably. Or broke it and got soos to fix it again. So many options I could have taken and I took the stupid, ridiculously reckless one."

"You were desperate."

"I was -" He stopped himself.

I can finish the sentence though.

_I was probably going crazy. With frustration. So yeah, I was desperate._

_But not in the way most'd think._

I tried again. "Bill's the one to blame here." Because he is, really, the mastermind behind it all.

not that some blame doesn't lie with us but -

Majority? Him, Definitely.

he laughed again, as bitter as before. "Yeah. He sure is. But if we don't look objectively and see where we made mistakes in our dealings with him -" he sighed.

"It'll happen again. And again. And again.

Until we're not around to make the mistakes anymore."

...

I don't quite know what to say to that, so I just put my arm round him in some form of comfort, no matter how small it really is.

_I'm sorry you go through shit like this and that I never notice._

**_I'm so, fucking sorry._ **

Some best friend I am.

"Right then." he sighed, voice weary. "Next part. Which, by the way, I wasn't even present for most of this so how I know this I don't know but whatever lets move on."

"So I made my way to the theater..."

* * *

to the past!

* * *

_Io. me again. I greeted you in latin. Whatever._

_So, we left of with Dipper staring off after the car._

_Let's get a move on shall we?_

* * *

_Dipper is going to the theater, calling out Bill's name once for some reason._

_He does it again, yelling this time._

_"_ Bill!" he... uh... well, if he were corporeal, he'd be scratching his head, and, worried, he mutters, "Gotta get my body back before he does something crazy with it." He flies into the theater.

He sees Wendy, Bill-Dipper, and Soos sitting next to each other. "ah, nothing like the theater, hey toots?" Wendy is looking confused, and Bill has an arm round her shoulder and a hand on soos'. "hey soos, you wanna hear the exact time and date of your death?" Soos was looking confused by 'dipper's' antics as well, but then laughed and said okay in an odd tone. We now see that Stan is there as well. Wendy definitely knows something is up now, but not what - her expression is mistrustful, however soos seems okay, for some reason, and Stan...

eh. his expressions are difficult to decipher.

Bill is grinning creepily, as you do when you're a demon possessing a as-of-then 12 year old child. Dipper floats in from the back, as Mabel runs up to them. Wendy seems to be ignoring her suspicions, and is smiling at Mabel, as well as the creepy possessed child and soos.

Stan was being stan-like...

except that he was the only one still focusing on just 'Dipper'.

"Hey you guys!" Mabel starts. "You made it!" she's exclaiming this happily, by the way.

Stan also forgets his probable concerns for a moment as he sort-of smiles at her. "Are you kidding me? I would never miss..." his sort-of smile drops. "Whatever this is." Bill starts talking and somehow this does not immediately spell disaster.

Well, I said immediately.

"By the by Mabel, where'd you put my journal again?"

Without the 'by the by' it may have been convincing.

...

Whom I kidding, he's a con-man on a universe scale, course it was convincing, if a little...

off-putting.

"I used it as a prop for the big wedding scene." She looks concerned for a second _and why did she not have this planned earlier god -_ "I still need a reverend though..."

Somehow, this next bit does not sound warning bells.

"Hey, what if I play the reverend?" 'Dipper' says. "I mean, someone's gotta hold that journal right?" Without even second guessing it, Mabel drags Bill off to get ready. "Great, let's go!" Dipper sounds scared. "Oh no - wait - _Mabel!"_ Mabel and Bill run off - really oddly in bill's case - and Dipper follows them, somehow moving the curtains as he goes through them.

Mabel reappears to make sure no-one followed them - she could have sworn she felt something...

never mind.

She sees Gabe arrive, in a really fancy suit and the two perpetual puppets on his hands. He does some things and we stop looking at the creep.

Mabel gulps.

Grenda's voice booms out from the backstage - not needing any amplification. "The show is about to begin. Please turn off your cellphones. Unless you're texting me cutie!" after her... flirtatious remark... the audience half-heartedly claps and the curtains open.

Play happens for a bit but eh. Moving on.

Bill goes up to 'Grendo' backstage (really it's Grenda...but this _is_ Bill.)

"So hey, Grendo, Where's that book prop I'm using for the wedding scene?" Grenda points up to the wedding cake, attached to a rope on a pulley next to the... uh... walkway? eh. close enough.

"It's up in the wedding cake." Grenda replies. "But that doesn't come down until act three. So hold your horses!"

She turns away an is apparently oblivious to his monologue-ing session. "Oh, I'll hold my horses. _I'll hold them."_ He creepily walks backwards. He then adds "You monster." For no seeming reason.

( _huehue. invisible wizard. huehue. Grenda + kisses + cupbord w/invisible wizard... huehue)_

Grenda turns round as Dipper turns up. He again tries to contact someone, anyone, on the human plane of existence.

"hey, listen! have you seen Mabel?!" he is frantically waving his arms up and down.

... curiously, Grenda seems to sense _something_ but passes it off as nothing.

Dipper talks to himself for a second.

"What did bill say?..." he would be rubbing his face if he were corporeal. "I can't be heard without a vessel? Where would I find a - " and he turns to see a massive pile of discarded puppets from the play.

He grins.

More play stuff. Again, moving on.

Mabel goes to get a drink, apparently preparing for '36 more musical numbers'

Yikes.

as she is getting a drink, Dipper shows up in a kind of creepy way (as a puppet) and Mabel jumps, scared.

_Mabel says something i'm having a hard time deciphering but its something along the likes of 'it's alive!" and something warned her about this._

Mabel threw a fork at Dipper, impaling him in the eye.

What is with forks and eyes this - uh - this day.

Day. yup, nailed it.

Dipper moves the puppet, his voice echo-y. "Mabel, it's me - Dipper - You need to help me." Mabel shakes her head, confused. "Wait - What - _Dipper?!"_ She stands up. "But you're, ah, so much more of a _sock_ than usual." Dipper's tone is urgent. "Mabel, you _have_ to listen to me. Bill tricked me, he stole my body and now he's after the journal. You have to find the journal before Bill destroys it. It's the only hope to get me back in my body!"

Mabel's reply is...

not great.

"But my cue's coming up any minute!"

There is a knock on the door. 'Tis only Gabe.

ugh. Him again.

"Hey, Mabel - do you have a moment?"

"Gabe!" she yells, and grabs the dipper-puppet round the middle, and hides it behind her back. Dipper's arm is still in the puppet, and as he is weightless she's basically holding him by his arm behind her back.

he yells, unable to be heard. "ow! Mabel!"

"Mabel it's clear to me now that you really love puppets. I mean, you " blah blah "And if you stick the ending well maybe later you could join me for a " blah blah. she gasps, her pupils dilating. "You drive a " some car thing i can't spell prol'ly.

The lights flicker.

"I'll be waiting."

Gabe left.

Forgetting about her brother's plight, she starts gushing. "Did you hear that?! He loves it!" she gets serious. "This play _has_ to be flawless, can't we wait until after the show?"

Dipper is understandably upset - but mostly angry.

"Mabel! Do you want me to be a sock puppet forever?!" The puppet is flailing around.

Mabel laughs, unable to take this seriously.

"I'm sorry you look funny when you're mad."

Dipper does some weird thing with the puppet and makes a noise of understandable anger and frustration.

"okay, okay, okay, just take over for me until I get back with the book."

she sniggers. "Little puppet face..."

dipper does some puppet stuff and would probably be extremely embarrassed if anyone found out.

he complains.

Moving on.

Mabel is running on the walkway to get to the cake before Bill-Dipper does.

She falls in when trying to get the journal, but it is stopped from falling the whole way.

"huh... come on, come on, there must be a way to get Dipper's body back..."

Suddenly, Bill's voice pipes up.

"oh-ho, but why would you want to do that?"

we see this from Mabel's view, and what we see would probably have been pretty terrifying.

Bill-Dipper is effortlessly pulling the cake - with Mabel inside it - up, and is grinning down at her creepily.

Really, what she is seeing and hearing, is her brother, his voice - with an undertone of _something else,_ which could easily be brushed off if not for the situation at hand, wearing a reverend costume and basically holding the power to give her a major injury.

But he looked exactly like, and sounded almost exactly like her brother, from her perspective.

_creepy. Also - I think the eyes still can't be seen. Just so you know._

She gasps "Bill-Dipper!" she narrows her eyes. " _Bipper._ " He shushes her harshly. Holding onto the rope with one hand, still effortlessly keeping the cake at the same level - slightly below him - and points towards the crowd. His voice has a creepy lilt to it, the words elongated in such a way that is almost sing-song like. "You wouldn't want to ruin the _show..."_

She looks at the journal for a second, then suddenly -

"Whoops!" Bipper, as he is now dubbed, _let go of the freaking rope,_ for a second, to show he has the upper hand right now. "It's slipping! How's about you hand that book over?" Mabel is frowning at him now. "No way! This is Dipper's I'd never give it away!" She turns her body protectively around the book. Bipper plays with the pulley, pulling her up and down. "Hmm, you didn't seem to have a problem taking it for your own play. Or ditching him when he needed you..." He's still playing with the rope, and Mabel is looking doubtfully at the journal now. "So come to your senses." he looses the grin, baring his teeth and glaring at her. "Give me the book or your play is ruined!"

Mabel sighs, resigned, and goes to hand him the book. He places one hand on it.

She looks a little guilty, but not enough to stop what she is doing. "There it is. I mean, who would sacrifice everything they've worked for just for their dumb sibling?"

Mabel stops, and then says, with new resolve:

"Dipper would."

"Huh?"

Determined now, Mabel, with a yell, yanked Bipper into the cake with her.

ensuing that at least one of them would have a major injury but whatever.

"Woah - hey hey - _Ahhhh!"_

They fall down.

Puppet show stuff is still going on.

Moving on.

The cake crashes into the play, and Dipper - though he doesn't need to - dives out of the way.

Mabel and Bipper are fighting for the book.

"Get outta my brother's body you evil triangle!"

stan says something insensitive. Moving on.

Mabel continues to add to Dipper's body's many injuries. She runs off after slamming the journal into his face.

"You can't stop me! I'm a being of pure energy with no weakness!"

He growls, and dive-tackles Mabel.

Mabel grins

"True. But you're in Dipper's body. And I know all of his weaknesses!"

Bipper is confused.

"Whaddya mean his-"

Mabel tickles him.

he starts laughing uncontrollably. He yells "Ahrrg! Body spasms! What are these?!"

Mabel gives him a lesson.

"Little note about the human body - you haven' slept in over 24 hours, also I've got a full night's sleep and four mega shots of Mabel juice.

Dipper's body has been through the ringer, and Bill is just now noticing somehow. "What is this feeling? My body is burning! I can't move these stupid noodle legs! Curse you useless fleshsticks! Body, shutting down, must, scratch mosquito bites..." he stumbles around for a bit, and faints.

_Well done. *slow claps* you can't survive what is basically Dipper's norm. Well done._

He gets kicked out of Dipper's body, and the room goes to grey scale, showing that Dipper had indeed been in the mindscape the whole time.

_reality is an illusion..._

Dipper ducks under bill as he is kicked out of his body like a person off of a bucking horse, whilst shouting - "Woah whoah whoah- Hey!" his words echoing. Dipper dives back into his body.

And wakes up. Still worn looking, but not as bad off as Bill had been when in it because he was used to being in this sort of state.

Which isn't really all that great, to be honest. He laughs "Yes! I'm in my own body!" He stops looking as happy and excited. "And its.. just as underwhelming as I remember." He hisses. "Ooh, everything hurts."

A creepy echo-y laugh happens, and they look in the direction of it to see none other than a Bill-possessed Dipper puppet.

He warns them. "This isn't the last you'll hear of me - eh - " he is dragging himself along, "- Big things are coming. You can't stop me!"

Mabel says, sadly, "I'm sorry Gabe, and she brings out the button for the Big Finish.

She presses it.

"Heh?" The Bipper-Puppet looks down, and sees he's on a box of fireworks.

everything explodes.

very dramatic.

especially the stan puppet.

Dipper stomps on the Dipper puppet.

Mabel is optimistic, everyone hates it.

Gabe kisses his puppets.

they are weird-ed out.

Candy is not but eh. She creeps me out so yeah. Moving on.

they have a heart to heart.

"Mabel, I'm sorry about all this." he's being self-deprecating. "It's my fault your puppets got ruined." Mabel cheers him up. "Well, one of them survived. And she has something to say to you. Sorry Dipper. I spent all week obsessing over some dumb guy, but the dumb guy I should have cared about, was you."

His expression is adorable. Don't tell me it isn't.

then it morphs and the adorableness is over.

He'd probably be very happy about that.

"Mystery twins?" she asks. "Mystery twins." they bump fists, and that was a bad idea. "Ah! Ow. What did bill do to my hand? Ahh." "Nothing a little sleep can't fix." Mabel doesn't seem too concerned. Probably because Dipper's injuries never seem to last very long no matter the severity. "Come on bro-bro. Let's go home." She leads the way. Dipper is slightly annoyed. "Seriously I need to go to the hospital."

They don't. He's somehow fine by morning.

_but with probably like, tons of new scars and shit._

* * *

_fuck i am finally done with these flashbacks._

_ugh, that's pro'lly a 'for now' *ominous sounds* thing isn't it?_

_shit._

_Narrator, out!_


	8. Chapter 8: Friendship Goals. I Mean, Seriously; These Two Are Great.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summary - Dip-Dop's finished his tale, and Wendy is now going to be comforting.  
> these guys have the best friendship.

_(Wendy's pov.)_

We sat there in silence for a little bit, whilst Dipper gathered himself and I took into account all the information he just gave me.

Which was a lot, but never mind that. It was necessary. Really, very much so.

A long time coming, as well, but I'm not gonna dwell on that.

 _Or my own failures as a friend._ Shut up. Go away, you're not wanted right now.

I sigh, and turn to face Dipper. He looks up at me, a resigned expression on his face.

My voice is quiet. "I'm so, so sorry you had to go through that and no-one noticed until you told Mabel. And I'm sorry on her behalf, as I know she won't be, that she didn't take it seriously." He looked passive at the start of my sentence, but quickly grew annoyed. "Mabel's a good sister," He insisted. "She helped, didn't she? Sacrificed what she'd worked towards to help me - when, really, it was my mistake, my fault that the situation even existed in the first place. She didn't have to but she did." His expression showed stubbornness, the kind I'd only seen glimpses of during stressful moments, and times when the others dare him to do stuff - like during the festival a little while back.

_God, it wasn't so long ago that we were all mostly care free, was it?_

"And why did she? Not because she would - she did so because _you_ would. She was ready to give it to him; in fact, if he hadn't said that... she would've, and you can't argue that."

He stayed stubbornly silent, his gaze now fixed on the wall opposite us.

_Denial is a river in Egypt... one he shouldn't swim in._

"She's not the worst sister in the world." I allowed, because truthfully she's not. When she's not being ridiculous, or stupid or selfish or manipulative, she's a good sister. She knows how to cheer Dipper up, and she's a good balance of fun to his seriousness. But that's just it, isn't it? They're such different people, if they weren't twins, rather siblings, they probably wouldn't get along as well as they do. He'd be annoyed by her inability to take things seriously when he deems they matter, and she'd be annoyed that he does so in the first place. They'd definitely argue more, that's for sure... but I'm not too sure in which way round - him older, or her older - that they would argue more. I mean, they're personalities compliment each other's, but they're also so different it's a wonder that they have anything in common at all.

"Mabel's a good person." Which is true. She's unfailingly nice, and she tries her best to help those she thinks needs it. She's innocent, and naive, but not too much, just in a sense that she believes everyone to have some good in them; that everyone can be redeemed. She'll probably grow out of that, as well. She's never gone after more than one boy at one in a serious manner - If unattached, sure she'll flirt, but if she sets her sights on one person, she won't go after any others. She's fairly resilient, but was also insecure about herself, her 'silliness', but she seems over that now.

However.

"But she can be selfish, very much so, she has double standards and does put you down to make herself feel better at times." He frowned at the wall. "She's human, Wendy. Of course she has flaws - all of us do. I can get jealous, and violent, and am at least a little insecure. My morality can be rather grey at the best of times, and if it was a choice between saving you, or my sister, Ford, my Grunkle or even Pacifica, and a bus full of people, adults and children alike, I'd save the one that I actually know and care about. I'd do practically anything to prove myself - even if it leads to two people going insane, or being a bit of a jerk. I'm no killer - but I was asked to do so once, and I almost did. Because I wanted to fit in, for once." He was silent again for a few seconds, but I didn't interrupt. "We're human, all of us, and that's a good thing. But it means we have flaws, very human flaws, like Ford's hubris and Stan's abandonment issues. Like Mabel's narcissism and my own pride and insecurities. Like Robbie's control issues, and your own stress and anxiety. Like Thompson's need to fit in, and have friends, and his willingness to do pretty much anything for that. It's human, so yes, Mabel isn't perfect, but neither am and and nor are you. Sure, she's made mistakes, and bad decisions, but in the end we all have. So yeah, I was a little angry and upset with her... but I've forgiven her, so why can't everyone else?" He turned to look at me, waiting while I planned out how to answer that question. "...I'm biased." I finally admitted. "I'm more your friend than hers, and she knows that. It let's me be objective, see all of her without the rosy tint of friendship or her being my sister or something. And to be honest, I've not been the best judge of people, or emotions or whatever, but I could see how manipulative she is, and I suppose I could say that maybe she doesn't even notice. I could see how she'd say things when you were praised or something, that immediately set you down again. I could see she's jealous of your intelligence, that she doesn't see that she got a pretty good deal out of the whole 'personality' thing. And sure, you've been a little bit mean and lorded things over her, but the whole Alpha Twin thing was pretty mean. And maybe, just maybe I'm a little annoyed that she treats you the way she does but no-one ever says or does anything, and I'm ashamed to admit that I never did either. Maybe I'm jealous of the both of you for having your family mostly whole and healthy, you and her not having three missing brothers and a mom who died when you were too young to remember the last time you saw her from a logging accident your dad could have prevented but was too stupid, or maybe too shocked to do anything."

I sighed. I hadn't meant to say that. It just sort of... slipped out.

Shock crossed his features, before sympathy took hold and he awkwardly placed a hand on my arm, before removing it. "... There's nothing I can say, really." He said, seemingly annoyed with himself for not knowing what to do. "I never - I've never had to experience something like that, so anything I say would just seem like pity. But I can listen, if you ever want me to."

I smiled wearily at him. "Now's not the time. Later, maybe but for now we're talking about you."

He looked annoyed again, a little angry and a little wary, unsure of what to do or say to stop this from happening.

Well, fuck that. This is going down.

"Look Dipper. Either we talk now, or we talk later, with witnesses and other things."

With a sigh of resignation, he reluctantly nodded, signaling me to start.

"First off - sleep. Necessary. Don't skimp on it for other's benefit, or any obsession you may have dude. But you've probably learned that, and have enough people nagging you about it that I don't really need to. Next - you did rather well at refusing Bill's help. No, don't interrupt. Let me finish. Yes, he did convince you in the end, but it took two visits. Two! From what I've heard he's a ridiculously good con-man and manipulator - I'm surprised that he wasn't able to convince you earlier, to be honest. You did good. And the way you dealt with it - not giving up, asking for help, et. cetera - you did very well, and I'm proud of you more than I'm proud of your sister for coming to her senses and not agreeing with Bill." I sighed, and he tensed, readying himself for what came next.

"You aren't a bad person, Dipper. Your sister is no better than you, just as you're no better than her, or she's not better than me, or Nate or Lee or Tambry. No-one's 'better' than anyone, in my opinion, unless that 'anyone' happens to be a mass murderer or something. Than obviously, people can be better than that. Quoting a book series an old friend used to like, 'You're a good person. A very good person, whom, bad things have happened to." The same can be said for Mabel, i suppose, to a lesser degree, but I don't know your great uncles well enough to judge. 'Choices make the man,' some say, and as far as I've seen, you've made good intention-ed ones, even if the outcome isn't what you wanted."

His smile was strained, but a little more genuine.

I suppose twelve and almost a year of insecurities might make that a bit difficult to undo.

But for now, I suppose this will be enough. I'll try more, later, when all this is over.

_Later._


	9. Chapter 9: Now Or Never (They Voted Never. Funny That They Thought They Had A Choice)

For a while, Mabel and I had just sorta... sat, on the roof in silence, and, well. It got...

Unnerving.

So I left, quickly, stating some excuse for her to hear, something about being needed inside, about having some important job or some bull like that.

She bought it, I think, because she gave the slightest nod to me, and I kind of just hurried off, because...

Well. Running is easier than dealing with the problems of those you don't know, isn't it?

(It's cowardly. And I'm not a coward, thank you very much, but I just don't know _how_ to 'help'. It's a novel thing for me. In a way, it's a little bit scary, in a way all new things are to the young and sheltered. And rich and _'above everything, such as emotions, aren't we darling?'_.)

So I leave.

Back into the shack through the hatch, and I see a fair amount of the others gathered, yelling, and escape upstairs quickly in the chaos.

Dipper must be missing, considering it's him whose mediating between the species. He's not too bad, actually, but I'd never tell him that. Compliments aren't easy to give, you know?

hmm... I guess I should find him. Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Then, he can tell me what to do and I can be distracted again.

( ** _oh god dad-)_**

So I go up the stairs, carefully checking each room that I can enter that I can't hear any voices, or voices that aren't Dipper, inside. _'Look, you can't just abandon your kid like that, even if the rest 've been taken, Dan! You're a big man, ain't ya? So, use you're strength for sumptn' useful, like defending the Shack, or-"_ Quickly, I hurry of, because that sounds like Mr. Pines and something I'm not supposed to be listening to. _('darling, what did we say about eavesdropping? **Honey**?") _

I go up the stairs two at a time, and reach a landing with only one door. The twins' room. (I vaguely remember running up here before my panic attack, and I do remember being led down to my post by Dipper, who told me affectionate stories about the shack and his summer, ones to distract and deflect, to stop me from thinking or asking any questions. I was both grateful and annoyed, but _ladies don't interrupt,_ so I didn't say anything, and I suppose that was what he wanted, because when we reached where I was supposed to be he switched topics without taking a breath, told me what to do and skedaddled, without hurrying off. It was quite clever, in a way, a way that's rather annoying. But then again, he does live with a con man, so...)

Hesitantly, I open the door and -

_How on earth did she get here before me?_

Actually, never mind. She probably just went straight here, and I must have missed her when checking one of the rooms or something. Hell, she could have just come in from the roof - looks like there's an access ladder and hatch. Weird, having that safety hazard in a room kids are staying in, but hey. It's not me who put it there, so it's not my responsibility. (You would have thought that their guardian would've locked it, but considering he's Mr. Pines... it's not so surprising.)

They see me now, and have stopped talking. Belatedly, I say "hey." like some shy schoolgirl, rather than, well, _me._ I clear my throat, and say clearly, my tone a bit better and more my own. ( _Honey, you're tone is all wrong. Never be hesitant, show your superiority in your voice,_ ** _Pacifica._** ) "Hello. I was looking for your brother, Mabel. The others were wondering where he was, and-"

Before I could continue, I got a face full of low-quality material. Calmly, I removed the... _quaint,_ sweater from my face, and stared at the lama on the front, allowing a small sliver of confusion to show on my face. _(only let others see what you wish, Darling. They'll use your emotions and feelings against you, **won't they, honey?**_ ) "What." I state, plainly, and lift my head to stare at the other girl. Girls. The large male-and-boxer-sounding one, and the foreign, possibly-Japanese-girl is there.

 _Wonderful._ I was hoping to only have to interact with Mabel, if I had to interact with anyone other than Dipper.

(no, that means _nothing._ Shut up. You know I don't know the girl. Oh. You meant Dipper. Uh. Well. It's obvious, isn't it. He's the one who can tell me what my job is. Yes that- you know what I'm just gonna ignore you right now. You're not even real, voice in my head. Probably just _him,_ messing with me or something.)

Mabel's grin is full of braces and false happiness, and her friends are more truthful in their expressions, wariness and distaste clear on their faces. Well, the small girl's face. The other one, while not happy with me being there at least seems slightly more open and kind. Slightly.

"Put it on," she grins at me, the words coming through the gaps in her teeth distorted. "Your clothes are all ratty and that's just _not_ acceptable." I stare some more, unable to say the words I'm supposed to. ( _Never thank another, Pacifica, as they should be grateful that you accepted their worthless offering. **but-** No, Pacifca! (ring, **ring.** ) You are a **Northwest.** You bow to no other, understood? **Understood?** ) _Instead, I blurt the first thing that comes to mind, a reflex reaction _**rung**_ into me. "It's... quaint, but rather not my style, Pines. The material's cheap, the stitching is obvious, and it's horribly itchy. Besides, how on earth would I wear this in this weather without sweating? It'd ruin my already, carefully ruined, appearance." Her grin falters, and I feel bad about what I said but if I've learnt anything, asking for forgiveness is not something I really deserve from her, from someone I've hurt so much in the past few weeks. At any rate, so far as she knows this is what she should expect from me as a response anyway, correct? "Well alrighty then, thanks for the constructive criticism." She smiles, not grinning, and it's a tad more genuine. _Wait, what?_ I blink, and her smile grows, and grows slightly more genuine. The others look confused as well. "I'll be sure to hide the stitching better, and put an inner layer on the next jumper with an itchy material. I'll also find a way to make 'summer sweaters' more of a thing, so you don't get all yucky when you wear 'em." Her smile widens. "And, you've also shown me that certain demographics won't like them! So, all in all, that was a very helpful response!" She seems genuinely happy, right now, her voice loud and excited. all of a sudden, the hatch is opened and a tall, redheaded girl, _Wendy,_ that was it, drops down, and a few seconds later Dipper follows, climbing down a few rungs before dropping onto his bed. They look surprised to see us, and I figure we look as surprised to see them. Quickly and inefficiently, I mask my face with indifference, and drop (read: throw) the... 'summer sweater' onto the floor with a jerky arm movement, nudging it behind me with my heel. Dipper sits up, unnecessarily slowly considering how quickly he moved to come to my aid earlier, and I can see his careful movements for what they are; he's being deliberately slow about his movements, almost unconsciously, and his cheeks have a slight colouration to them under his sister's searching stare.

There's a slight frown on her face, but she covers it with a mask of her own, a braces-filled grin, and ignores her brother's entry to the room as if it hadn't happened. "Hey Wen! Nice of you to _drop in"_ and she laughs, with a slightly forced edge. "Drop in..." she snorts. "I'm hilarious.". "Yeah, you are." and there's a cold, biting edge to Wendy's dry tone, and Dipper flashes a glance in her direction, and she winces, sits down, leans against the ladder. Mabel blinks a few times in rapid succession, and chances a confused glance towards her brother.

Ah, I see the dynamic here. She's the action girl, he's the plans and knowledge guy. She's the brawn, he's the brains, and she isn't too happy for the roles to ever switch, for him. At least, that's what I can gather from all their interactions that I have seen.

"Hi, Dipper." I say, and manage not to react to Mabel, as she turns her head, quickly, in my direction, hair whipping the larger girl on the arm. Her eyes are narrowed, slightly, and I remember calling her _'pines'_ and saying ' _hello'_.

Oops.

He nods in return. "Hey, Pacifica." Wendy flicks her eyes between us, raises a brow and then shrugs, and stares, hard, at Mabel, who has her mouth open, ready to say something. Wendy's eyes are almost saying _'don't you dare'_ and Mabel's jaw snaps shut with a click.

What the hell? Ugh, whatever. Dipper looks just as confused, so if he doesn't get what his friends are on about I'm not going to.

"We are leaving now." the small, glasses girl says, and the larger one adds: "Yeah! Grenda and Candy, out!" Oh. So that's their names. Okay. Wendy flails a hand in goodbye, I incline my head in acknowledgement, Dipper mutters a "See ya.", because of course he will, they're his sisters friends and he shares a room with her. Mabel pouts, and grabs her friends in a crushing hug, jumps back and waves in a hyper way. "Alrighty then, girls! Love ya! See you later!" She calls after them, and shuts the door they leave open.

My god, were they born in a barn? _(If you leave a door open, it makes you look forgetful, daughter. **Northwests are not forgetful.** ) _Oh. Actually, yeah they probably were if they were born here, considering the hospital is a renovated barn. (I was born elsewhere, obviously. _The **Northwests**_ wouldn't even _consider_ stepping foot anywhere _near_ a barn, no matter the renovation.)

I grimace, and gracefully sit down on a clear patch of floor, pretty much in the same place as I was when here earlier.

Dipper glances my way, and probably realises the same, because he sends an almost unnoticeable smile of reassurance to me. Neither of the others see it, and my pride makes me feel grateful for that, and I feel grateful for the smile because that's the sort of thing you feel grateful for.

Mabel sits down on her bed, and now we make a kind of makeshift circle, or a star with four points. or an irregular polygon. Whatever. We make a shape of some kind, at any rate, and so we sit there in silence. Wendy's still, her gaze moving from person to person; Dipper to Mabel to Me and back. Dipper's fidgeting with a pen, not clicking the end as it's a capped pen not a push one, but he does keep on chewing on it like most do. It explodes, and Wendy and me jump a little in surprise, but it must be a common occurrence as he and Mabel don't even react, except for him to mechanically drop the pen into a box I just noticed as he does so, one labeled 'broken pens' or something similar (I can't quite read it from here, but that would make sense), and then he automatically reaches out for another one. Before I can say anything, Wendy speaks. "Dude, ink's poisonous, right? Isn't that like, majorly unhealthy?" Brushing his arm across his mouth and removing any evidence of the ink's previous existence he shrugs, and she shakes her head. "Dude..." she grins, amusement with an undertone (overtone) of worry. "Do you have _any_ self-preservation?" He pauses, thinking, and I flash back to the party, to Dipper standing on a table yelling things at the Ghost that I couldn't hear, to him being frozen into a wooden statue and I think that _no,_ he really doesn't, Wendy, shouldn't you know that by now? Before I can do something stupid, like look like I'm about to blurt some ridiculous statement or something, He shrugs again and the topic is dropped. Again, the silence consumes the room, and this time no noise is made from any of us, not even Mabel, who had been humming to herself, messing with her hair and her bed sheets in intervals. we're all weirdly still, all wanting to say things but not wanting to break anything so close to the final battle.

(Because there will be one. I'm sure of it. Just as sure as that after all this, the _Northwest_ name will be ruined, and the only thing that'll stop the businesses being affected, is because you can't really use the very good reason of 'tried to join the side of an evil demon alien thing' as an excuse for boycotting someone in the ' _real'_ world. All we'll have left is our money, and well. That won't really be worth much to anyone in this town, after this. Just as sure that my name is Pacifica Northwest, and my life will never be the same, later.)

(Later.)

Dipper breaks the silence. "We all need to go back down." he says, finally, and to me it feels like a missed opportunity for _something_ but what that is I don't know.

Lately, everything's feeling like missed opportunities.

Wendy nods, and the moment for fixing ourselves before the end is over, Mabel nods as well, her's more exaggerated, and salutes her brother "Where to, bro-bro?" He sighs. Can you and Wendy do lookout please? Mabel, use the window upstairs, and Wendy, you can use your usual area, right?" he glances at me. "Anyone up there." Mabel stares, and its obvious, but I ignore her and so do the others. "No, Dipper. There isn't anyone there right now, so far as I know." Dipper looks like he's mentally cursing, and Wendy actually does curse. "F-sh-crap, uh, okay, like, no-ones on watch now?" I shake my head. she mouths another curse, getting up as quickly as possible and wrenching the door open, sprinting towards her post. I wince, "Sorry," I mutter. "S'alright," he says. "Wasn't even your job anyway." and this time he actually _glares_ at his sister, for a second, but looks immediately guilty and... chastised when she flinches.

Oh, _no._ No that does not get to be part of their dynamic. Nope.

I raise an eyebrow. "Mabel?" I question, and she winces, though not guilty and not regretting; rather, I think, upset at getting caught and letting her brother down so soon after she did... _that_... to him. She coughed, awkwardly, and hurried to the ladder. She climbs up, and opens the hatch. With one last glace at her brother, actual guilt and a little worry on her face for the first time I've ever seen it, she goes into the (apparently) soundproof attic, (not a roof hatch, but an attic trapdoor, made a mistake but as it was an uneducated guess I'll let it slide) leaving me and her brother alone.

( _Again.)_

 _"_ So, what job do I need to do?" I ask, because even if I wanted to talk I don't know for sure if the attic is soundproofed. "Uh - Yeah," he nodded, and got up, off of the bed. "Yeah, could you help with the mediating? There's a lot of beings to handle all -" he gestures vaguely, shrugging, and I know now he probably has as much of a pride problem as I do, in a different way. I nod, because sure, its something to do, isn't it? and he leads the way back down to the gift shop, it being the only room that can fit every single being that is with them. (there's a lot more than I originally thought, but then again, beings have been arriving since the start and more keep on coming. Some friendly, some... not.)

When we entered the room, a hush fell over the creatures for a second, then an avalanche of sound was thrown at us. Dipper sighed, and moved to the multibear in the corner, and murmured something to it. It nodded, and roared. Silence fell, and Dipper stood on a bench that had been moved into the room. "Right." he called out. "Everyone, one at a time, please." "I cannot work with this... imbecile!" A particularly snobby sounding, burly looking man called out. "I may be on guard duty because of my knowledge of fighting and martial arts techniques-" Right, of course, _sir, that's definitely why you're a guard, Mr. Muscle Man._ "You no _real_ man!" a Minotaur roared, slightly smaller and less hairy than his brothers, with a weedy-er voice, but no less of a brute than the others. A few Minotaurs roared in agreement, and Dipper got the Multibear to yell for silence. "Manotaurs!" Dipper called out. Oh. Right, _Man_ otaurs. _oh-kaaay..._ "Calm yourselves. And you-" he pointed to the snobby guy, who folded his arms and rose to his full height, and looked down on Dipper. (I'll give him credit in the privacy of my own mind; he's not even a little intimidated. "Okay, first, stop that, it's not gonna work, and secondly - _you have to get over yourself._ Understood? Learn to work with the Manotaurs, please, C _hrist._ It's not that difficult. If a twelve year old can do it, it really can't be that hard, can it?" and oh, I see. The snobby guy's eyes narrowed, and he nodded jerkily. The leading Manotaur nodded in approval, and Dipper inclined is head.

_Challenge accepted._

the man grunted, more like the brutes he despises than anything else right now, and Dipper nods, satisfied.

I sit back, ready to enjoy the show.

"Right." he calls out again. "Whose next?" There's a cacophony of noise, and I let out a groan on accident at the same time he does.

(It's gonna be a long forever.)

(considering time is stopped.)


	10. Chapter 10: When Later Becomes Now.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last one! yay.

Today is the day.

We're all gathered around the gift shop - as it's the largest room in the hovel - uhm, sorry, _shack,_ and Dipper and Mabel are rallying the troops for battle. Mr. Pines doesn't seem too happy about it, but then I wouldn't be too happy about turning my house into a robot either.

So yeah. Shit is about to go down, as I heard the... Wendy... girl say earlier. (Not exactly _proper,_ but then she isn't so if I'm quoting her, i'm not sullying the name of Northwest. Ha.)

The old hillbilly is yammering on about something or another - oh, he's explaining to Dipper and the others who're gonna help him change the Shack into the, ahem, _shacktron,_ ugh. Terrible name. Anyways, Wendy's beckoning me over to go over how we're gonna eject from the robot and get into the pyramid.

Alright. Nope.

Carefully, I make my way _away_ from all of this. As I go to go through the door upstairs, a large arm blocks my path.

I turn my head, and Mr. Pines is staring at me, obviously annoyed.

_Damn it._

"If I have to help them, you have to too." He told me, gruffly. I hesitated, sighed, and turned around.

(I'm not gonna try my luck with a con-man. That won't end well.)

Wendy's frowning at me across the room, and I go to her. She's standing with the black-haired, black hoodie-d teen, and a few others. (A gnome, for example.)

She raises an eyebrow, unimpressed, and folds her arms.

(I don't deign her with a response.)

The redhead sighs, and starts to instruct us, pointing at a blueprint of the escape chutes and gesturing how we'll leave.

To me, it looks like we'd go _splat_ when we hit the pyramid. To everyone else, it looks like they think the same.

"Wendy" The teen with emo tendencies interrupted. "We're not gonna like, die or anything. And doing _that -"_ He pointed at the blueprint - "would kill us. Mom and Dad might not be so cheery if its me they're burying, you get me?"

Wendy sighed. "I get you. But Mabel's making parachutes as we speak - " And indeed she was; I could see her in the corner, knitting away patchwork parachutes with old sweaters. Most of us grimaced, some seemed okay with this. "- and it's the best we've got. Plan, that is."

We all sighed, oddly simultaneously, but then we all knew what she was saying is true.

(We're heavily leaning towards defeat here, but what would you expect? We're going agains some otherworldly demon; We have no chance. Not unless a miracle happens.)

"This is veeerry baaaaad." A voice pipes up, annoying and nasal-y. (It must be Toby Determined. I don't know anyone else in this town that speaks like _that.)_

There are murmurs of agreement, and Wendy slams her hand down on the desk, making a few jump and a gnome fall of of his stool.

"We have _no other options!"_ She yelled, her calm and collected, laid-back attitude cracking. "Our _friends,_ our _families_ our out there, _stuck_ as _statues_ in a _demented throne!"_

Her voice cracked on _families,_ and I remembered the large lumberjack and his three sons.

(There was no wife, no mother to the sons. I realized I'm not the only one whose family isn't as whole as it should be.)

A sadness suddenly overtakes those within earshot; luckily most are not, only really our group heard her.

Robbie gaze turns slightly sympathetic. He nods, and asks, "So... uh. Go over the - ejecting again. Yeah. Right. That."

Wendy composes herself within moments, from tense to relaxed, cool and calm. She nods, and restarts the explanation.

(This time, there are no complaints. The set of Wendy's shoulders is slouched now; defeated. I'm not one to undermine that false calm. It's just another form of mask.)

* * *

Dip-Dop is over with the other brainiacs tryna make sense of McGucket's crazy schematics. Me, I'm making parachutes, doing one of my most _fave_ pass times, oh my gosh I have the best job; knitting.

Specifically, I'm joining old sweaters (I'm so sorry my creations, but we need parachutes right now) into _definitely_ safe parachutes.

It's going to be the most awesome set of 'chutes _ever,_ no doubt about that. We're going down in _style._

(Wait. That could be taken like-)

So yeah. Bro-bro's doin' nerdy stuff, Grunkle stan is... being productive in the corner, Wendy's instructing people on how to use the ejection chutes, and the others are training the movements they're gonna need to drive the _Shacktron,_ which is the most awesome name ever.

Like, seriously.

Anyway!

Candy is with Dipper and the other nerds, no surprise there - though she seems to think the blueprints are highly logical - go her! On the same level as a _genius._ You go girl.

Grenda's punchin' stuff. As she does.

Honestly, not much is happening right now. I mean, we're preparing for the _battle of the ages,_ but really this is pretty much down time.

(Calm before the storm my brother said. _Calm before the storm._ I asked who he was quoting (because he's not usually that good with words, see?) and he rolled his eyes and walked off. Bro-bro's been acting weird lately... weirder that usual, ha! Good one Mabes. Good one.)

I snicker to myself, amused by my own joke. _I'm a joke **genius.**_

A gnome that's close by gives me a weird look. I scoot my chair away.

(No thank you, Mr. Norman. No thank you _at all._ )

* * *

I'm honestly gettin' kinda tired of going over the same stuff again and again, so I tell everyone that's it and to go... practice punching with Grenda or whatever, and wander off.

Mabel's giving an uncomfortable side eye to the Gnome near her, so I head over there before stuff starts happening.

_Not gonna deal with the gnomes shit right now. He can help out, or get out. His choice._

"Yo, Mabel" I grin. "How's it hangin'?"

Ah shit. Still a little affected by Mabel Land, it seems.

Her grin splits her face in half, far too large and far too faked. "Oh, everything's goin' good. My parachutes are coming along _great!"_ She lifts up the current parachute, and two of the sweaters fall off. I grimace, but she doesn't seem to notice - either that, or she takes it in stride.

(She kicks the sweaters into the pile, her grin never faltering, not one iota. Jesus Christ, her cheeks must hurt from all the _smiling.)_

She lowers the parachute and continues diligently working on it. The gnome edges closer, and I grab him by his beard hair and glare into his eyes. "What do you think you're doing?"

The creature yelps in pain, before pleading "Ow, ow - please put me down; I'll leave her alone just let me go!"

I "Humph", and drop him. The gnome scrambles off, and joins his brethren.

"Asses." I mutter, because really, they're assholes. Pretending to be someone else, then kidnapping and forcing a girl to marry all one thousand of them? Asses.

Mabel looks up at the noise, and blinks at me, confused. "Eh?"

I give her an easy smile. "Nothing Mabel. Go back to the parachutes; we're gonna need a lot of 'em."

She nods, lifts a hand in mock salute and goes back to work.

I wander over to a punching bag, and ready my stance.

Mr. Pines comes over, from where he'd been giving Grenda pointers from the corner where his armchair had been crammed into.

I stay in the ready position, and he nods. "Not bad kid. Who taught ya?"

"My dad." I reply, swinging hard with my right, following up with my left in two, short jabs. "He teaches us - My brothers and I - on Sundays. Me more than the others though - 'cause I'm a girl, I guess. He thinks I'll need to protect m'self more at any rate." I still my movements, and change stance. A swift, low kick is given to the base of the bag.

He nods. "Good family bonding that."

His voice is almost, _almost_ what you _might_ call wistful. His eyes were staring at the punching bag, but his mind was elsewhere.

(The topic of his brother and saving him had probably brought up memories, which themselves brought up memories of his childhood. He was most likely reminiscing for simpler, better times, where his biggest worry was stopping people from messing with his brother.)

(Soos had explained _everything_ at like, early-as-fuck a.m.. Sue me, I can't remember the exact time.)

I adjust my position, and drive a hard, powerful kick to the side of the bag. I switch legs, and give a swift one to the base, before landing that leg, switching stances, and hitting thrice with my left hand and one with my right, before kicking with my left again.

I land it wrong and stumble slightly.

"Shit" I mutter, because if that were real life I'd have made a fatal mistake.

(We're fighting real life, actual _demons_ here. Fatal is the right word, however morbid and pessimistic.)

He nods. "You timed that wrong, but you already know that." my boss told me. "Yeah." I leaned on the punching bag, then righted myself and stood in a new stance.

I hear the ripping of fabric and the thud of something heavy hitting the ground. Both Mr. Pines and I turn our heads in the direction of Grenda; as that had been where the sound came from.

The punching bag lay on the floor, ripped in half. Grenda was glaring at it, panting heavily.

Sharing a weary, wary glance, Boss and I walked over to her.

"Grenda?" I asked. "You broke a perfectly good punching bag." Mr. Pines complained, staring down at it. "Now how'm I gonna - you know what, I ain't going to finish that statement."

I raise an eyebrow at him, then shrug.

(It's his business, after all.)

* * *

Oh hey there! Sup dudes. Soos here- oh wait. I'm not supposed -uh. Heheh.

(whoops.)

So like, we're all doin' stuff to help the _mega awesome shacktron_ be efficient and all - I suggested lasers, but apparently not. S'alright dudes, It's still -

Uh. Oops. Well, It's still mega awesome, just minus laser rays.

Ah well. Probably wouldn't 've hurt Dorito guy anyway.

(Is he an equilateral, or an isosceles? These are the questions... I think equilateral, dunno why. Just looks like one to me.)

So I'm helping out with the building and stuff. I'm pretty happy with that arrangement - I get to add all the super mega awesome bits - Old Man McGucket even compliemented my genius!

Oh, if only Melody could see this, but then no because it's a horrible nightmare world where my _abuelita_ is a chair. Still... still not over that. She seemed fine though.

I think.

So I guess I'll just - oh. Uh. You? - okay I'll just- wait so it's the-

* * *

_(damn it soos. This is why I never write you. Breaking the fourth wall is just far too annoying. You know too much.)_

* * *

It's not really an experience, being a gold statue, per say. You see, I am aware, but I have no sight - since my... everything is solid gold. So perhaps _aware_ is the wrong word... i suppose _conscious,_ that might work...

Hmm. This will take some thought. Oh, if only I could do a proper analysis. There's not much to do when you're gold.

Oh. I can - I can hear, I think! This is a development... what is that? Music? I can...

Some words are legible, here - I'll list them.

\- _'who can you trust?'_

_\- 'turns to gold, gold -'_

_\- 'hearts turned to gold'_

Hmm. Interesting. Bill seems to be trying to rile me up using a song I've never heard before. It's a rather appropriate one, to be fair, but taking another lyric -

_you no longer fear when your heart's turned to gold'._

(I realise now that 'hearts' is 'heart's' - but only in context.)

(Good plan, Cipher. Pity I'm gold; It might have worked otherwise.)

* * *

( _I do not own 'Gold' by imagine dragons. All credit for lyrics used goes to the original creators.)_

* * *

"...So, logically, using this method for activation rather than that... convoluted one - that might I add, needs a beard so only _you -_ or some gnomes, I guess - could operate it - would simply be easier, right?"

I nod, because Dipper is correct The old man's method was silly. Even by my standards... it was not an improvement to the machine. "Yes Dipper. I agree."

The old man lowers his head sadly as the others in our group clamour (I am certain that is the word to use. Mother would not have taught me it otherwise.) their agreement. I adjust my glasses, and squint at the blueprints. I tilt my head, and they make more sense.

"What about this one?" I point out to the others. "It is very oddly done. Removing five steps, and adding one different one would suffice." Dipper peers at it, and nods. "Good catch, Candy." A lilliputian circles the part of the schematics I pointed at. He salutes the almost-teen. "Cheater, What would you like us to circle next? And will this be the one that kills you?"

"They are so cute. I want one for a pet. I will see how it works." I whisper in Korean.

The others look askance at me, and I smile simply. They look away, seemingly creeped out for some reason or another.

I stare unnervingly at the small blue golf ball man, and he warily looks my way.

(We enter a staring contest. As always, I win.)

* * *

_There is a montage. Many a person is working on many a thing; fixing and training and building. The Shacktron is soon complete. Now, the - what I suppose are - rebels (at least, against the tyrannical overlord that is Bill Cipher) depart for battle!_

Let's hope they don't die.

* * *

Dipper is at the wheel, and I'm just sort of... sitting. In the corner. Waiting until it's time to eject, I guess.

It's not easy, waiting. Wondering what's going to happen, worried that we're all going to die, _hating with a fiery passion_ this stupid, itchy sweater with a _stupid,_ fugly pattern on the front that makes _no sense._

I hate this sweater. It's uncomfortable, It's itchy, and it's is wonderfully distracting.

(it let's me not concentrate on the fact that I am - and everyone else is too - heading to my most likely doom.)

Apologies for my french, but _putain!_

We're all doomed. And we're all stupid, because we're heading straight for it.

* * *

_Everything that happens, Happens. Now?_

_Now..._

_Is Later._

* * *

We lost everything because my dad is a _fucking idiot, evil asshole._

So. No house, now only _millionaires,_ holy shit, and I'll only have _one_ horse, instead of _five?_

Crazy. This is ridiculous, why are my family such _imbeciles._

At least we still have our businesses.

We'll get the money back, I guess. But we have no house. Which is the main problem.

I pause, and suddenly, I have the _best goddamn idea ever._

"Mother, father?" I question. "Yes, darling?"

I take a deep breath, and set my shoulders. I lift my head, just as we practiced, and h looks proud if a little wary.

"I know a place we could move."

He frowns for a moment. "Yes? Extrapolate, daughter. Never leave a sentence unfinished, aside from of course the dramatic moment and tense- ah. Never mind, well done."

I smile.

"Piedmont, California."

(My mother smiles. Not many know, but she hails from California. I think she'd like to go home.)

* * *

The grave in front of me is old.

We're in the middle of the forest, in a natural grove that is quite beautiful.

It's a lovely resting place, for _her._ I'd never want to be so isolated, even in death.

As is customary, I set down the flowers on her grave, say meaningful words I'm sure I must have meant once, a long time ago.

(When I still remembered her.)

I swallow, hard, and a large hand, one that is usually firm and unyielding is placed gently onto my shoulder.

I take ofj Dipper's - now mine, I suppose - cap, and hold it tightly.

(It offers more comfort than my father's actual presence does. He hid away with my boss and the other _cowards,_ when his _children_ were imprisoned in a throne of stone people.

I still kinda hate him for that, if you couldn't tell.)

With a sigh, I put the cap back on. Abruptly, I shove off my father's hand, and leave the grove, ignoring my brothers, and whatever expression my father has.

(My brothers understand, I think. They're at least letting me because of the lengths I went to to try to save them. I think, in their own ways, they're proud of me.)

(My father lets me go because he never did know how to _handle_ me. That came to light during weirdmageddon, and I'm _glad_ it did.

_No, no i'm not.)_

* * *

_The seas are rough, and giant monsters attack their little boat often._

_Honestly, they're having the time of their lives._

_"Pines! Pines! Pines!..."_

* * *

The journey back to Piedmont is tedious, and long, and tiring.

Well. Actually, that 'tired' feeling could be due to the literal apocalypse they just went through, but their parent's can't know that. They'd never be allowed back in gravity falls ever again if they were to find out.

(They may be prone to sending them off to far away places without warning, to live with relatives they've only met in passing, but they're not _bad_ parents. They're just not particularly worried until _after_ the event. And they're always so busy, it's _not_ their fault. Really.)

The twins sleep for most of the ride, with intermittent games - and for the first time in the whole summer, Dipper picks up his handheld game thing, (Mabel isn't sure which one it is, and doesn't much care) and Mabel goes back to her well-worn hobby of knitting to pass the time.

(He finishes his game - which is _far_ too easy after his summer - before the journey finishes. He goes back to reading the journal copies his Grunkle gave him before he left.

(Ford hadn't been there, but Dipper wasn't too worried. They were just notes, and he wasn't stupid, after all.))

(Mabel had gotten very good at making sweaters. She made over fifteen by the journey's end. (She could have sworn she'd seen Quentin Trembly out the window at one point, but she might have been sleeping.))

* * *

_Grenda and Marius have a wonderful time. The two get along great, and that relationship looks like it'll last._

* * *

_Candy has fun, and improves herself. Her mother is happy. (They're voted the most terrifying, to no-ones surprise but theirs. They take it in stride.)_

* * *

_Soos and Melody (And, of course, his Abuelita) have a grand old time at the grand re-opening under new management of the Mystery Shack. (It's ratings go up, simply because Soos and Melody aren't an old man with a criminal record known in town for scaring kids, and almost blinding people. (He's told her he's sorry, jeez. Lazy Susan doesn't even remember it's his fault, for crying out loud!))_

* * *

The bus stops at Piedmont, and their parents are there to greet them.

Looking around, the place seems just the same as it always had done; but somehow, in someway, _something_ felt different.

Perhaps, this time, the difference was them.

Mabel runs to their parents, and jumps into their dad's arms. He swings her around. "Hey there princess! How was my Mabes' summer?" She grinned, and shared a secretive glace with Dipper. (He had walked up to them at a more sedate pace.)

(Instantly, as soon as they saw their recently-crowned-teenagers, the parents had seen a difference in their children. If it was for better, only time could tell.)

"Oh, you know. Adventure, mysteries, mayhem..." She told him, smiling.

"Any other normal summer." Dipper smiled.

"You kids have fun then?" Their mother asked, smiling back at them. "Yeah." Dipper nodded. "I definitely did."

Mabel's nod was more vigorous. "Ohmygosh, yes."

Their dad placed Mabel back on the ground. "Well then. You can tell us all about it when we get back."

Dipper and Mabel shared a glace.

_Ah._

_Oh dear._

( _They wished they could do that Later, after they'd had a chance to prepare._

_But it looks like this **was** their later..._

_so really, it's now, or never._

_(They voted Never.))_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FFN A/N: AAAAAnd.  
> We're done. Finished. This has come to an end.  
> ...  
> Wow.  
> I - uh. I never thought anything that I'd write on this site would get as popular as this. I, am, utterly shocked. I want to thank everyone -(but some people especially, you know who you are)- for staying by this story throughout the year. For reading, favouriting, reviewing, following... for everything - even if you did none of those, If you just read to this chapter, or to a previous one, if you are one of the over 2000 viewers (christ) I thank you so, so much for reading this. It means a lot, a hell of a lot to me, that you did.  
> So, I guess, for one last time...  
> Thank you...  
> And goodbye.  
> \- Cesca.  
> (At least, until next time.)
> 
> AO3 A/N: As of today, the 4/1/2018, this fic has gotten 3,433 views, 27 reviews, 13 favourites and 10 followers over on Fanfiction dot net. I don't know how that happened - I'll always be grateful for it, of course, but I really don't think that this is my best work. Still, I figured posting my most popular work from over there to over here as a comparison of my writing from jan of 2016 to now would be interesting, at the very least. Happy new year, everyone!

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me if awful, I'll completely agree w/ u


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